


Save You: Closer

by dqlumos32



Series: Save Myself [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-01-04 18:18:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12174144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dqlumos32/pseuds/dqlumos32
Summary: He was standing in the middle of duelling area with one Draco Malfoy as his opponent. He should have known the Slytherin won’t settle with spells found in books of their age.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta-ed.

To be very honest, Harry Potter, aged 12, liked Defence Against the Dark Arts the most. He adored the nature of the course – to defend against something. Too bad he couldn’t actually yelled _stupefy_ at Dudley. That would probably save him all the energy needed to run away and probably stunning everyone in Privet Drive would allow him to stash more than just extra bread slice for dinner.

 

And maybe, if he had a better teacher, he would excel spectacularly in the subject. Granted he had only two teachers to compare so far but both gave no impression they had fought dark arts. Hell, Harry didn’t think they were the fighting-type at all.

 

Professor Quirrel stuttered a lot and rarely talked with his eyes looking at the person he was talking to. He stopped because he claimed the Hogwarts castle had too many ghosts and there were voices which kept him awake at night. Harry suspected it was Peeves – everyone did. But who can stop a quivering professor without breaking him further?

 

Then there was Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry refused to call him professor since the guy cared more about his appearance than actual teaching. He had no idea how the professor’s smile affected the girls in his year so much. He might be able to understand the constant dreamy eyes they had when Lockhart flaunted his shiny teeth but he didn’t think he could hear more of _‘Professor Lockhart looked at me today’_ or ‘ _Do you know he defeated two werewolves during the full moon by himself?_ ’.

 

After countless complaints – mostly from the boys – for the lack of what they called _defence practise,_ the blonde professor finally decided to organized Duelling Club to give ‘ _extra lessons for the lost little lambs’._ The idea of it was fun. Everyone was excited to show their skills with the Weasley twins planned to humiliate Lockhart with jelly-leg curse. Ron was sceptical of the idea of the club all-in-all saying ‘ _It’s gonna be another platform to tell how he killed a banshee barehanded, that if Snape didn’t get to him first. I don’t know which one is worst; having Lockhart as the instructor or Snape as his assistant’._

 

How Harry wished Fred and George would do their thing at the moment. Instead, he was standing in the middle of duelling area with one Draco Malfoy as his opponent. He should have known the Slytherin won’t settle with spells found in books of their age. He just had to summon a snake, trying to induce fear (he did make everyone gasped). And of course, being the one who had to save the day and not even giving Harry chance to utter a simple _stupefy,_ Lockhart came in front, shouted another spell that was supposed to burn the snake into ashes. It would be quite a show, Harry believed, if Lockhart managed to aim his wand in the right direction. On a second thought, Harry didn’t even think Lockhart pronounced a correct spell.

 

As the snake hissed – angry that its tail was injured – everyone blanched even more when it somehow grew bigger than when it first being conjured. Harry, the always odd guy in the group, was amazed rather than turning white.

 

“ _You can grow bigger?_ ” Harry asked innocently, not realizing he was hissing.

 

There was absolute silence in the room. The snake went rigid too.

 

“ _I thought you aren’t real,_ ” he hissed again, oblivious to the surrounding.

 

It took a moment to realize every single soul was staring hard at him and it took another minute before he realized what he had done. Ron was gaping in horror while Fred and George had the opposite reaction – they were cheering on him. Hermione’s brows would link if she frowned harder and a Slytherin girl next to her – Pansy if he remembered her name right – had an accusing look on her face. The rest of the floor wear similar expressions and whispers started to fill the air.

 

A curse was spoken and the snake was vanished. Professor Snape, who stopped being a spectator, put his wand away as no more smoke can be seen. His normally sour face went worst while Draco who was standing not far behind him seemed… angry?

 

“Well, I guess I let my shock overrule my mind,” Lockhart broke the silence. “Thank you, Professor Snape, for taking care of the snake. I wish I could give a good _Fiendfyre_ show before. Too bad, next time I guess.”

 

“ _Fiendfyre_ is _deadly,_ Professor Lockhart,” Snape stated, his eyes not moving away from Harry. “Sure you can control it just well? Even I didn’t dare conjuring the fire with students nearby,”

 

“Ahh… that’s the beauty of being adventurous like me, isn’t it so, Severus? You learn _hard_ things like that,” Lockhart smiled cheerfully, “Although I wish I could learn Parseltongue like our Harry did here. You know, when I travelled to India to search more about inferi, I met a guy who would teach me the language. I was half-way mastering it when he died of heart attack…”

 

Lockhart babbled some more indistinctive information he didn’t catch up because Harry was involved in unplanned battle of who-look-away-first-lose with Professor Snape. He didn’t know what the professor want from him. The Slytherin’s head never took interest in him unless to belittle his sloppy work, claiming talents couldn’t be inherited – whatever it meant. And now, the man seemed like he was trying to read things inside his head. He felt something poked his mind but that got to be just a feeling, right?

 

He felt his hand were pulled when he realized other students had dispersed, leaving him with a handful of Gryffindors.

 

“You never tell us you could talk to snake, Harry,” Fred spoke first, grinning as he rested his arms on Harry’s shoulder.

 

“If we know you had this talent, we wouldn’t have to hunt for the snakes for their venoms in the Forbidden Forest. You know, research purpose,” George continued, mimicking his twin’s action on the other side.

 

“Forbidden Forest had its name for a purpose. You could get killed,” Hermione intercepted. “Why didn’t you tell us, Harry?”

 

“Tell you what?” Harry feigned innocence.

 

“That you could talk to snake!” Ron replied, almost bellowed him. “Parselmouth shouldn’t be trusted! And I trusted you with lots of secrets!”

 

“Oh, my dear brother, was it about you had secret fetish with women with large bosom?” Fred asked.

 

“Or was it that you love your red trunks too much you don’t mind wearing them even they’re full of holes? Come on, it’s not Harry. That’s us. Can’t you tell?” George added.

 

They were all laughing sans Ron. Harry managed to chuckle but stopped immediately when Ron turned red.

 

It did take him a while before he could say, “I don’t think it’s a big deal,”

 

Harry lied. He distantly remembered Tom said otherwise. It’s not an ability to be feared but rather an ability that will give you all kind of advantages when it was kept secret. So it was a big deal.

 

“I don’t think I can trust you after this,” Ron snapped before diverted his eyes to the remaining crowd, “He can speak to snake and he’s in Gryffindor! For all I know that’s shady enough not to trust him. Who’s with me?”

 

Harry was sure Ron was expecting some sort of rebel group supported his belief but what happened was no more than whispers. Fred and George, seeing that, grinned ear to ear and whistled mockingly.

 

But the twins didn’t see what Harry saw. The whispers were nothing close to ridiculing Ron; they were more of debating the idea he boldly stated. Hermione in particular can be seen with frowns when she was stuck at questions and intend to do her research at library – that, if the library had the answer.

 

Realizing no one was about to support his statement, Ron huffed and left them. Hermione followed not long after. It was then everyone went quiet and looked at him with accusatory eyes; more intense that what Pansy gave him.

 

“Oh, come on, really?” George broke the silence.

 

“Let them, dear brother. I believe we have new… fascinating things to focus on,” Fred said, consoling Harry at the same time.

 

“Why do you still believe him? Are you a traitor too?” Seamus, Harry’s dorm mate spoke before the twins managed to get him away.

 

“Well, we are already blood traitor, they said,”

 

“Why not add more to that title?”

 

Wishing the earth would swallow him, Harry gave them a thin smile before choosing to look at the floor. He knew he will be alienated again; _just like before_.

 

He felt he was swapped away, too distracted to realize where he was brought to. He wondered if Tom was right – about not fearing Parselmouth. It was less than minute and he already experienced the heavy glances thrown on his way. He can foresee his upcoming days, years even, would be spent with people holding prejudice against him.

 

It seemed the castle slowly turned into Privet Drive in term of how he’ll get treated. The only consolation he got was at least the castle would offer plenty of spaces to hide if everything became too overwhelming. Maybe the twins will help him. Or maybe he could ask the ghost; Peeves would know how to hide better providing he could provide the poltergeist something in return. Or if Madam Pince decided she would finally show any sign of sympathy towards him, maybe she’ll show a secluded area that no one heard of.

 

Harry was so lost in his thought that only after he heard a door was shut he broke his reverie. Fred and George looked at him worriedly.

 

“You okay?” Fred asked first.

 

Harry nodded, realizing he was in the twin’s room. Their roommates weren’t there. He was seated on the bed which he suspected belonged to George.

 

“You know Ron can be a git, right?” one of them asked. “And you know we’ll shield you if anything went overboard, right?”

 

Harry gave them a weak smile. “Why are you always kind to me?” he asked, not answering their earlier question.

 

George shrugged. “I guess we like you a lot,”

 

“Thank you,” Harry replied, not all convinced. “But, why?”

 

“Just because,” Fred answered.

 

The answer reminded him of Tom.

 

_“Why?” he asked._

_Arching his brows, Tom asked back. “Why what?”_

_“Why did you save me?”_

_The question made Tom wondered the same thing. “What’s your name?” he asked, avoiding the question._

_“Harry,”_

_“Harry… Hi, Harry. My name is Tom,” Tom didn’t offer his hand, rather, he put them in his pockets._

_“You still haven’t answer my question; why did you save me?”_

_“Why are you so curious? Aren’t you supposed to say thank you? That’s manner, you know,”_

_“Thank you, Tom,” Harry replied, probably half-heartedly grateful. “Again… why did—”_

_“—I save you?” Tom cut him. “Just because,”_

 

“No one saves someone else for just because,” Harry whispered, repeating words he said to Tom.

 

“What are you saying, Harry?” George asked, not catching his sentence.

 

“No one is kind to me just because,”

 

The twins laughed. Harry frowned.

 

“You know, for someone who haven’t received enough kindness to ask question like that, you yourself is too good to be true,” Fred started his speech. George who sat next to him nodded vigorously. “We aren’t exactly a kind person to tell you this, but to make it simple… how do I say this…”

“I told you, we like you. Like a lot,” George continued, his arms opened wide.

 

“Why do you like me though?” Harry asked again. “I am like the plainest person ever exist,”

 

It was the twins’ turn to frown. Their face scrunched trying to think how to answer the question.

 

“Can’t we just like you?” George asked after a while.

 

“Without reason?” Harry asked him back.

 

“Maybe one day we’ll find reason. But for now, yes, we just happen to like you without any,” Fred answered genuinely.

 

Harry regarded them carefully, mouth agape in wonder. It had never crossed his mind that one can like others without reason. It was a peculiar thought. But maybe just like Fred said, maybe one day the reason will come out. As for now, he was glad.

 

“I like you guys too,”

 

* * *

 

 

“Now, try to turn them into a nice looking goblet. Work with your partner,”

 

As Professor McGonagall finished, everyone turned to the person next to him. Harry wasn’t sure what he should do; no one was sitting beside him.

 

“Where is your partner, Mr Potter?” the Professor asked.

 

Harry gave him a weak smile. He scratched his head, hoping he could find appropriate reason without letting her know directly no one was talking to him since the incident; not that the professor didn’t know what was happening.

 

He saw Ron said something at Neville but the latter didn’t even listen to him. Their eyes met and Neville could only mutter sorry. The class was in odd number that day since Hermione couldn’t show up due to an incident related to Polyjuice Potion. Otherwise, Ron would be her partner while Neville would be his.

 

Harry smiled again; this time at Neville, understanding. Neville wasn’t exactly any better than him. He too was a plain, quiet boy but somehow the universe decided Harry was the one with a bitter life.  

 

“Can I work alone today, professor?” Harry asked politely, his eyes lingered at the newly formed pair.

 

Professor McGonagall followed his sight and sighed almost immediately. Of course he heard what happened during the duelling club but she didn’t expect Harry to be ostracized yet again. She thought at least her Gryffindors were more than this.

 

“Sure you’ll be okay?”

 

Harry nodded.

 

“I can easily put you in any pair of your choice, you know,” she stated, obviously had a soft spot for the raven.

 

“You can be my partner if you want, Professor,” Harry blurted jokingly.

 

“I don’t trust your class members who I believe would somehow blow things in front of them. Like—” a loud explosion came from the front, “oh, dear,”

 

On the third row, smokes dissipated and revealed one Seamus Finnigan with traces of ashes. He did it again; blowing things up. Everyone were laughing, Harry did too. But when his eyes met the embarrassed boy, he was assaulted with a glare from the latter. Harry quickly turned away, ignoring the commotion.

 

He waved his wand repeatedly, enchanting the spell he just learnt despite being distracted. It wasn’t fair and he was tired. It had been a week and things were not improving – no one talked to him or involved him in anything, loathed faces when he was partnered with other than Neville and now he wasn’t even welcomed to laugh at silly mistakes when everyone else did.

 

“Mr Potter!” Professor McGonagall called his name, snapping him out. “I wish you would very well wave your wand properly. I don’t fancy another explosion in my class,”

 

Everyone chuckled menacingly at him. Ron sneered as if the raven made the silliest mistakes that day.

 

“Maybe you should try talking the rat language, Potter,” a Slytherin mocked him. He didn’t see who. “It suits you better, you know,”

 

Laughter erupted and Harry was so sure his face had the same colour with his tie. He gritted his teeth; pretended he never heard any of that or that he saw Ron laughed the loudest.

 

He tried to focus on what in front of him, remembering the wand movement showed by his teacher in attempt to ignore the commotion. He believed he heard Professor McGonagall scolded them and deducted some points but he refused to care. Taking a deep breath, Harry waved his wand again; this time with more determination with a clear image of a ruby-studded goblet in his head. It took a few try before…

 

“Congratulations, Mr Potter,” he heard Professor McGonagall said. “The first one to actually do what a student in my class supposed to do. That is indeed a nice-looking goblet. 10 points to Gryffindor,”

 

Harry stared at the newly formed object in front of him. It wasn’t full of rubies as he imagined but the gems were here and there. The goblet itself has gold colour.

 

“Thank you, Professor,” he finally said, almost forgetting his manner.

 

That simple word contained a combination of self-satisfaction and his version of mocking which directed towards the rest of the class. Putting his wand aside, Harry pretended to drink from it and asked if Professor McGonagall would kindly fill the goblet with wine; claiming it was the only drink befitted to be poured in.

 

She chuckled. Harry chuckled too. Everyone else was not.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update. Not beta-ed.

**CHAPTER 2**

Tom Riddle and Harry Potter exchanged letters sometimes. While Harry took longer to write a reply to Tom, the latter seemed to do so in an instant.

 

Usually Tom talked about his boring job and his plan to find something new. Harry on the other hand was not quite sure what should be shared and what not, so he always talked about the twins. Tom said they weren’t a good influence but had asked him to keep them close still, just in case.

 

_I got a surprise for you._

It was what Tom had written to him after he let the guy know about the goblet. Thinking about it, Harry wasn’t sure if he deserved any surprise. His achievement seemed to bring more misfortune rather than good things. He really shouldn’t have bragged that day because life after that was pretty much a hell for the lack of a better word.

 

Got tripped when he was walking was a normal thing. He can ignore the jeers and sneers that came his way – silencing spell was a great tool to combat that. For all it worth, it made him focussed more in class much to Ron’s dismay. His performance was far from the best but still, he improved a lot.

 

What irked him however was when they would _accidentally_ set his homework literally on fire a day before the submission date. Fred and George were so livid when they found out that they had done the same thing to all second year Gryffindors. It wasn’t exactly a wise thing to do though as the three of them were blamed whole-heartedly by the predators-turned-victims. As a result, Harry had to join Fred and George scrubbing the trophy room without magic for being guilty by association while the twins got extra detention for two weeks with Professor McGonagall.

 

To say his Head of House was upset with the incident was not quite on-point. She was angry and frustrated but at the end, she was still and just a teacher. The most she can do was taking points from her own house since no one came out to take the blame. She went a bit too extreme that the Gryffindor hourglass almost turned empty if it wasn’t for Professor Sprout and Hagrid took the liberty to calm the witch down.

 

Just like the twins, her action too was not something one can applaud for. If anything, Harry wished the professor would just ignore the unjust that happened around him. Harry was mocked by his _favourite_ potion professor more frequently while other teachers seemed to walk on a thin ice when talking to him, worried if their kindness were mistaken as something else by his housemates. And they took full five-minute before deciding a homework was a good idea or otherwise, not wanting the same incident to happen again – it always resulted to no homework (Professor Snape didn’t care though) and Hermione disapproved that.

 

The only one in the school who may not treat him like he’s a plague – the twins excluded – was probably the one and only Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry never thought he could be thankful to the professor for still including him in many of his lessons. He gave up trying to make Harry spoke Parseltongue again but he did find it fun to try to _speak the language_ with the raven when they met face to face. Harry pretended to understand him when all he heard was strange hissing sound; it seemed to make the professor _proud_.

 

“When are you going to get your ingredients, Potter?” Professor Snape snapped him from his musing, looking annoyed. “Waiting for someone to pick them up for you?”

 

It was two-hour Potion class and they were making Wiggenweld Potion– a potion that was supposed to reverse the after effect of Draught of the Living Death. It was also healing potion that was not supposed to blow up even when wrong ingredients were mixed in. Deep inside he was grateful Professor Snape chose to make that that day. He could do a quiet class for a few hours where he can concentrate on learning something after days of being hyper vigilant of his surroundings. No one dared to interrupt the stone cold Slytherin’s class. Right?

 

Offering a small grin, Harry quickly stood, rushing to the back. He purposely went a bit later, not wanting to be accused of purposely knocked a big bowl of snake skins again. After making sure he had everything gathered, he immediately made his move to get to his station.

 

“5 points from anyone who dare to speak nonsense in my class,” Professor Snape announced. The class would be as silent as the graveyard if it wasn’t for poor Neville’s cauldron had been knocked onto the floor.

 

“10 points from Gryffindor for disrupting the class,”

 

“But—”

 

“—I could take 10 more if you didn’t start doing your work, Mr Weasley,”

 

Harry swore he was just looking on the board for instructions but somehow, his eyes caught Ron. The redhead muttered something that he knew had close meaning to it was all his fault their house point was deducted despite not doing anything. He sighed as he pulled all his concentration on the potion.

 

He started with salamander blood, stirred it, more salamander blood, more stirring, a bit more of the same creature’s blood, stirred his cauldron again, blood again, stirred until it turned turquoise—still greenish—more stirring—and finally the desired colour came out.

 

He read the board again— _add five lionfish scale._ So he picked the scales and one by one, he plopped them in. One… two… three… four—the fifth one looked a bit different from the rest but—five…

 

He grabbed the vial that contained flobberworm mucus, scrunching his face in disgust while doing so. His eyes were back on the board—a _dd until it turns purple—stir until it turns red—add more until it turns orange and stir until yellow._ Easy enough, he can do it.

 

He was uncorking the vial when Snape berated someone in the class who turned out to be none other than Ron.

 

“It says _five_ Mr Weasley! Not the whole bowl you took!” Professor Snape raised his monotonous voice as he emptied the Gryffindor’s cauldron. “Do it again!”

 

He heard Malfoy snickered not far from him. Ron must’ve heard it and it really shouldn’t surprise him that the redhead thought it was him—again. It frustrated him… was he that undesirable?

 

“Careful Mr Potter, you don’t want to splatter the mucus to someone else,”

 

Professor Snape was suddenly standing next to him. The professor cocked his head to his cauldron, trying to find mistakes.

 

“How many scales you put in?” he asked coldly.

 

“Five, professor,” Harry replied.

 

The professor scrutinized him and huffed and walked away when Harry showed no sign of flinching away. This was good, the professor didn’t have anything to say so far—which meant he was doing alright, probably great.

 

He was at the final stage of the potion making where he just waited while the potion simmered when another member of the class got scolded. It was Neville this time, for being too – _careful –_ with the mucus. Harry pitied him. If they were near to each other, maybe Harry would help; or at least not complaining this and that (like Ron did) until it disturbed the poor boy’s already lack of concentration.

 

“10 points from Gryffindor,” Professor Snape stated, his face turned more sour as time passed by. “Is there anyone in this class who is competent enough who is now waiting for their potion to complete?”

 

A few Slytherin put up their hands – Malfoy included – and of course one Hermione Granger too. Realizing he belonged in the same group, Harry slowly raised his hand.

 

And that was all it took to have every eyes on him.

 

He kept his head down as he quickly lowered his hand, busying himself with the bowl which had been stacked, ready to be returned to the cupboard and vials that had been cleaned earlier. Maybe he shouldn’t raise his hand… maybe he shouldn’t concentrate as much even… because at that moment he hated his position.

 

He didn’t realize how much time had passed until he heard Professor Snape almost yelled at him for spacing out. He was among the last to submit his potion. The professor said nothing but ignored him when he gave the perfect turquoise potion to be evaluated. He saw others had blue, some green with few unfortunate cases of red liquid in their hand. Ron’s was blackish, so was Seamus’ and Neville. It seemed like they were taken from the same cauldron.

 

“What? Think yours great?” Seamus started.

 

Harry couldn’t understand why the boy was so angry with him. He did literally nothing in the class but minding his own business.

 

“Found a way to brag, Potter?” Ron added. So he was a Potter now, no longer Harry.

 

Harry kept quiet, patiently walked into his station to do final cleaning. Apparently both of them thought it was a wrong move to not give reaction to their taunt because Harry found himself sprawled on the floor, having himself tripped by one of them.

 

They both laughed as Harry turned red.

 

“Forget to walk now your potion skills increased?” they jeered.

 

He wanted to cry, he wasn’t lying. If this was Professor McGonagall’s class, she would already put a stop and gave out detentions. But this was Professor Snape’s, a professor who didn’t hide his dislike towards him.

 

“Shut up,” he whispered, it went not unheard.

 

“Shut up? Woah… acting like a Gryfindor now?” Ron mocked him. “Finally… I almost thought you don’t deserve to be a lion you know,”

 

“Shut up,” Harry said again, louder.

 

“10 points from Gryffindor,” Professor Snape cut before Ron managed to retort. “I would consider not taking more points if you fight _outside_ my class,”

 

Harry hastily kept his things. Once the class was dismissed, he was the first to run out. He couldn’t deal with anymore of this. He had Defence next and he knew it was going to be another tiring, taxing class; having to deal with the over enthusiastic teacher. He considered skipping the class. Maybe he should head to the library and hide himself among the books where no one could find him.

 

“Oi, Potter!” a voice called him just before he could turn left and disappear.

 

He wasn’t sure what possessed him but he found himself pointing his wand towards the voice. It made them stopped following him, but it also had cause several more wands pointed back at him.

 

“What are you going to do? Hex us? You alone?” Seamus challenged him.

 

“I might do that. I have better duelling skills you know,”

 

“Hah—look at that, a lion,” he mocked again.

 

He saw Neville was fidgeting from the corner of his eyes; not sure of what to do. He had better expectation from Hermione who stood not far from him to stop them but she kept quiet.

 

“Fighting in a hallway is against the school rules, Weasley,”

 

It was Malfoy who said that and Harry couldn’t believe his ears. Was the blonde trying to help him?

 

“Oh, wow… I don’t expect this. You got yourself a snake friend, Potter?” Ron snickered. “I know you shouldn’t be Gryffindor. Told the others and they disagree—said something about your parents being in the same house. I wonder what they are going to say from the grave seeing you making friend with a slimy snake like him,”

 

Malfoy was about to retaliate but Harry was first to blow up.

 

“SHUT UP!” Harry bellowed, only to have more laughter erupted. “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!”

 

“Or what? Freak,”

 

Suddenly he heard nothing else. He knew they were gathering audience with his shouting but everything seemed to be moving in a slow motion. His mind was transported back to Privet Drive and his body remembered the beating he had when Uncle Vernon realized he was home late after the first meeting with Tom. Luckily Tom came back because Harry had forgotten to take the snacks he bought. Tom saved him and _obliviate_ them after the lad managed to land a punch on his uncle’s face and cussed his aunt. He even stayed for a while to treat his wound.

 

But that was when Tom was there to help. No one would take his side today. Maybe Malfoy would but he doubted the blonde would go as far as to join him in a fight. He knew how to stun but that would be too lenient. Ron deserved more than that because his parents were off-limits and truth to be told, he wanted to see the ginger got landed in the hospital wings. He remembered reading about a blasting curse but never tried to cast it. Maybe today was a good day to see if the hex was as deadly as it sounded.

 

He was just about to swish his wand when he saw a jet of light came to his way. It was too late to put up shielding spell. He was hit and although he heard someone had shouted _protego_ , he found himself blown to the back. Too bad there was a knight armour nearby and he had collided with the offensive metals.

 

The helmet fell and hit his arms. It hurt like crazy. But that cannot top the pain he felt as the breast plate chose to fall on his head. His skull must have cracked; the dizziness he had was more intense than what he’d felt from the last time he tripped on the stairs. He heard more shouting – he recognized Professor Snape was among the one who yelled. He wished they would stop because the ringing in his ears were hurting his head even more.

 

His pain intensified as he felt someone was trying to move him from his position. He wanted to yell stop but he couldn’t utter any word. He saw blurry imaged of a guy in wavy black hair… Tom? No… it was a redhead… Ron? No way, Fred… or maybe George? They were saying something but he couldn’t make sense any of their words.

 

Oh, how he wished Tom was the one whom he saw. He wished Tom would help him again and fixed him like he did before. Maybe Tom could occasionally be nearby to watch his back sometimes and teach him one thing or two about defensive spells. And the he would tell him everything will be okay one day.

 

Finally, he silently cried. And then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-ed. Sorry this chapter took a while. Too many jobs to be done at work. *bow down*

Harry woke up with a terrible headache. There was funny tingling on his hand but other than that, he felt fine. The familiar smell that assaulted his senses told him he was in the infirmary.

 

He remembered the explosion that sent him here. He wished he could remember the one who was responsible too but all he can think of was Professor Snape’s loud snarl. Harry didn’t think Professor Snape was angry at him though.

 

He sat up with much difficulty and Madam Pomfrey chose that time to appear.

 

“Mr Potter? Oh, thank Merlin! How’s your head?”

 

“I—I guess ok? A bit pain, that’s all,”

 

The nurse sighed heavily. “I really thought after treating your burn, I won’t find you here again for the same reason,”

 

Harry could only smile. The nurse was referring to the bully he was facing and he had nothing to say for that. He avoided looking at the nurse’s face when she fretted over scars and his old bruises. Good thing she kept the mumblings to herself, probably realizing if she asked question it will go unanswered. She waved her wand few times. It gave yellowish, almost green colour. Being the frequent visitor to the hospital wings, Harry knew the colour meant he can be discharged the same day. He wasn’t sure if should be happy otherwise. It was great he won’t have to stay there but he didn’t think he could see the faces of the people who had sabotaged his cauldron that soon.

 

Maybe if he asked nicely…

 

“You will have to stay here a day more – at least,” Madam Pomfrey announced, much to Harry’s delight. “I believe waiting until you give a nice looking green is the only way I will let you out,”

 

Harry smiled. He might not have many friends here, but he knew the adults had soft spot for him.

 

“Thank you, Madam Pomfrey,”

 

She shrugged nonchalantly. “I advise you to not overexert yourself, Mr Potter. Especially in half an hour, the Weasleys will be coming in, I’m sure,”

 

“HARRY!”

 

“Ah, not even thirty seconds—there they are,”

 

He turned to the entrance and saw Fred and George were running towards him. They both wore the same expression – relief. He was assaulted with questions as soon as the twin reached to his bed, both sitting on his left and right.

 

“You’re awake!”

 

“How’s your head?”

 

“Heard you cracked your skull,”

 

“It’s fixed, right?”

 

“You’ll have to stay longer here aren’t you?”

 

“You’ll be sleeping in our dorm if you’re leaving today,”

 

“We got you lots of sweets, you know,”

 

“And we made the elves to prepare the best treacle tart and send it here,”

 

“Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley!” Madam Pomfrey stopped them. “Would you please calm down?”

 

“He’s alright now, yes?”

 

“He’s not going to die, is he?”

 

Harry laughed—a big one. He almost toppled to the floor if it wasn’t for George stabilizing him. It was moments like these he felt there was more to life than the sadness and loneliness that kept on creeping on him.

 

“Di—die?” Madam Pomfrey stuttered in disbelief, “No student will die under my care. Especially this one,” her wand pointed at Harry.

 

“Aw… one more staff who fell for you, dear Harry,” Fred cooed.

 

“Too bad none of them ever like us,” George chipped in. “Well, I guess except for Professor Flitwick,”

 

“He likes you guys because you excel in charms. I think if you ask nicely he’ll want to join making things with you,” Harry said, grinning, lingering pain had already been forgotten.

 

They both smiled as Madam Pomfrey took her leave.

 

“But seriously, you okay now?” Fred asked in concerned.

 

Harry simply nodded. “She said I got to stay a day more at least though,”

 

“Good, you don’t look well enough yet,”

 

“Thank you, for coming,” Harry said, almost shyly.

 

George looked like he still had his concern. Harry only needed to arched his brow to ask what was wrong.

 

“There was a lot of blood,” he explained. “We really thought you’d never make it,”

 

“I’m okay now,” Harry tried to sooth him, “It will take more than a knight armour to kill me,”

 

“Don’t say that,” Fred said, “If that didn’t kill you, I don’t even want to know what will. You’re lucky Professor Snape was there to control things—it was hell,”

 

“What happened exactly?” Harry asked, finally wanting an explanation, “I only remember lots of voice. Don’t even know what hit me,”

 

Fred and George looked at each other, Their face went darker.

 

“Ron?” Harry took a wild guess, “He did it?”

 

The twins sighed. “Yes,” they answered simultaneously.

 

“Not just him though,” George added. “Seamus too,”

 

“I got hit with two curses? Woah, it’s a miracle I didn’t die already,”

 

Fred chuckled darkly, “You would have to thank Malfoy for that,”

 

Harry arched his brows again. He remembered the blonde tried to stand for him, but never though he’d go that far as to protect him.

 

“The _protego_ ; it was him?”

 

George nodded. “It’s ironic isn’t it? You being saved by the Slytherins? Our house is supposed to be the noble one. Yet you are here today because of them,”

 

“Maybe it’s true I should be there,” Harry said, smiling sadly, “Do you think I will have a lot of friends if I was a Slytherin?”

 

“Maybe,” Fred answered him without hesitation. “But you might also not know us, the most brilliant twins Hogwarts had ever known. Well, I mean you won’t get to the chance to try our inventions first,”

 

“I don’t know, maybe he could, dear brother,” George added, “but more as a victim. You know we like to pick on Sytherins, don’t you? Speaking of that, I think we it’s a good idea to start befriending them,”

 

“Yeah, they protect their own. Good allies and great business partner,” Fred agreed, the second sentence was directed more towards himself. “Maybe we should start with Malfoy,”

 

“I’m a Gryffindor though. Why would Malfoy protect me of all people?”

 

Both of them only managed a shrug.

 

“Maybe because you talk to snake?” one twin suggested.

 

“Yeah, maybe. I mean just look at today, two of them are willing to lend their assistance to you. Not sure about the other one though,” the other one agreed.

 

“There’s more?”

 

“I couldn’t see his face that clearly—you know, got a bit worried about you back then—but I know I know him,” George scratched his head, thinking. “He looks a bit older, seventh year maybe?”

 

“Black hair, pretty broad shoulder,” Fred added, “I think he almost created a scene trying to hex Ron and Seamus. Not sure why he was mad,”

 

_It can’t be…_ Harry thought. There was no way the person who came to his mind was actually there, was it? It was all in his head that he saw him, right?

 

Or was it a no?

 

“Ah! I remember!” George exclaimed. “You remember him, Fred? The only guy we couldn’t prank?”

 

“It was him? What is he doing here? Thought he left? With lots of medals and trophies,”

 

“Don’t forget the Headboy title,” George reminded him, “I wonder if Percy had hard time catching up to his _legacy,_ ”

 

“No one will ever surpass him I think. What was his name again?”

 

“Tom Riddle,” Harry answered.

 

And the twins looked at him in wonder. They were about to ask Harry more questions when Madam Pomfrey startled them by suddenly making appearance next to the bed.

 

“I think it’s time for you both to leave,” she reminded them, “I believe you have class in five,”

 

“No we’re not,” they answered in sync, trying to be excused from their incoming Potion class.

 

They continued giving excuses; including threatening to jump from the window just so that they could be placed nearby Harry but ran in a haste when the nurse pledged to thoroughly checked her inventory in case of missing potions. She knew the twin must’ve been sneaking out few healing salve to treat their injuries during their probably illegal experiments.

 

“No tarts in my ward, Mr Weasley!” she shouted before they both disappeared, leaving a stunned Harry alone with the nurse. “Are you okay?” she asked.

 

Harry nodded. He found his voice stuck in his throat.

 

“I heard Tom is here under Professor McGonagall request,” she explained without being asked to, clearly showed that she heard their conversation. “You know him?”

 

Harry couldn’t contain his smile. “I do,”

 

* * *

 

That morning when Tom Riddle arrived Hogwarts, he was brought to the Headmaster’s office where he exchanged a number of untrusting glances with Professor Dumbledore. It had never crossed his mind he would be called to do what Professor McGonagall described as _helping a teacher to manage a class_.

 

“We have a Parseltongue here too, you know,” she said once they were alone, her showing Tom his quarters. “Nice boy,”

 

He instantly knew who it was since he himself was the one who explained to the boy of the rare abilities. He kept quiet.

 

“I heard you know the language but never heard you speak it,” she continued. But when Tom didn’t give any reply nor showed that he cared, she didn’t say anything more; probably thought he wasn’t comfortable with the subject.

 

They walked until he reached a portrait of a caged snake – a two headed cobra.

 

“We really did try to find another quarters for you but this is the only one available at the moment,” she said guiltily. “And no matter what I do, I couldn’t take down the portrait. I hope you don’t mind,”

 

 “I like it, good password to my door,” he assured her. The snake was sleeping. “ _Wake up, beautiful,”_

The cobra immediately ended its slumber, staring at Tom before bowing their heads. At the gasping sound he heard, he turned his head to the awed professor. “You really speak it,”

 

“I do, Professor,”

 

As if a burden had been lifted from her shoulder, she smiled. “Then I believe Hogwarts will find its peace again,”

 

“I’m sure it will. It’s going to be an interesting semester, Professor,”

 

“I will need to explain some more things to you later, Mr Riddle,” she patted her shoulder. “But I have a class to attend to. Lunch will be at the Great Hall but you can have your meal on your own inside. Call for Dippy, she’ll bring you something.”

 

“When can I start… helping… this Professor you mentioned in your letter, Professor?”

 

Chuckling, Professor McGonagall passed him a scroll. “I intend to introduce you after dinner. You’ll be joining him starting tomorrow. So for the time being, you are free. You can take a stroll in the castle if you want,”

 

“Thank you, Professor,”

 

So he did just that—strolling. The quarters didn’t need much cleaning. Even when it did, Dippy was too happy to do it for him. The elf was waiting for him inside with sandwiches and tea when he stepped in and declared herself as Tom’s personal elf as long as he was in Hogwarts.

 

He was about to head to the library to borrow some books after visiting his old house when he heard a commotion. Believing it was just another magic-in-the-hallway-show that always irked him during his school days, Tom quickened his step.

 

“Oi, Potter!”

 

The word was enough to make him changed his direction. Instead of hastily heading to the library, he went to the hallway he recognized as the one that led to Potion classroom.

 

The sight that greeted him was the back of a boy with unruly hair pointing his wands towards many others who did the same. He didn’t hear what was being said clearly, but when a blonde in Slytherin robe appeared to be defending his Harry, he knew trouble will be coming.

 

He was proved right seconds later when Harry started shouting. Two jets of the same light were coming to get Harry before the latter managed to swish his wand. Never in his life Tom had felt his heart stopped beating as he recognized the slashing spell was only metres away to hit Harry. He was stunned and found himself not moving from the floor.

 

It had to be luck that a _Protego_ was shouted before he regained his sense. The blonde casted it, he saw, and the boy was in equal shock when Harry flew to the back only to hit the armour by the wall instead of being left unharmed. His guess was the spell was just enough to prevent the injury but wasn’t strong enough to withhold against the force that came with the two curses meant to do harm.

 

He ran to Harry whose blood was spilling onto the floor, forgetting to use his wand trying to remove the metals from the raven’s head. His glasses were broken and the helmet had left deep cut on his forehead, just next to his existing scar. Their eyes met and he knew Harry recognized him despite having hard times to see properly with the blood smearing all over his face.

 

But before he could utter any healing spell he knew, he was pushed aside by a tall redhead. He didn’t need to guess who that guy was. All he knew Harry was in a good hand, at least for now. And he for that matter, had someone to maim.

 

Raising his wand, he waved the stick to send a purposely missed harmless jelly-leg curse to Harry’s attackers. They backed off as Tom approached them, so he sent more. Looking at the fear and confusion that etched on their face couldn’t bring even an ounce of satisfaction. These people, these bullies; they need more.

 

“ _Reducto,_ ”

 

It was another missed spell—this time by inch to the Weasley’s brother’s leg—Ronald, if he wasn’t mistaken from the description Harry gave him in his letters. The floor blew up and send its pieces to the redhead’s face, giving him a small cut with barely-there blood.

 

“What the—who the hell are you?!” Ron bellowed as he wiped his face.

 

Tom didn’t smile. Instead, he sent another missed blasting curse. Only this time, he was targeting Seamus too.

 

Both of them turned red almost immediately once they realize what he was doing. They fired back as Tom had hope, and he quickly raised his shield which was way stronger than the blonde’s.

 

His eyes caught the figure of one Severus Snape walked through the sea of students. Almost immediately, he backed away with a small grin which lasted only a second.

 

“Mr Riddle,” his monotonous voice greeted him.

 

“Professor,” he greeted back. “These two attacked me,”

 

“—what? YOU STARTED—”

 

“—and they had injured fellow Hogwart’s student,” he cut, not giving them chance to explain.

 

Once the professor noticed the blood and how the Weasley twins clumsily called Harry’s name, he put a full body bind curse on the _attackers_ and hastily made his way toward them. It took all patience in him not to react too much seeing Harry had finally succumbed to the pain. His only relief was when Professor Snape started chanting and a white glow wrapped the unconscious boy, lifting him slowly and carried him to the hospital wing in haste.

 

Harry had not woken up for days after that. Tom found himself lose his concentration doing his works and Professor McGonagall did question him a few times. Professor Snape didn’t say anything about the incident; if anything, they only exchanged nods.

 

He visited every night after casting a strong disillusionment charms. He couldn’t take the risk of anyone knew his affection towards Harry; at least not yet. He took pride of himself whenever he came to visit though, that despite not being seen, Harry seemed to sleep better with him being close. So he chose to spend his night in the same ward, taking the bed next to him. He also witnessed a few times where Fred and George visited and told him stories and brought him lots of sweets.

 

It bothered him—the twins’ care. He wanted to hex them for being too close but he also knew Harry would hate him if he did so. And he also knew, the twin should be thanked; but he really didn’t want to. He hadn’t figure it why just yet, but he suspected it had something to do with them being Gryffindor and the whole pranking attempts they made previously. And to belatedly know the twins were among the first to greet Harry when he woke up this morning, Tom was affirmative he will never be able to like them at all.

 

It was around an hour past midnight when he came again. He was late. Otherwise he would be there as soon as the curfew started. It irked him that Harry was sleeping despite understood perfectly that was how it was supposed to be. But he had been wanting to talk to him since he heard the news of him waking up. He wanted to see how well Harry was faring with his own eyes. He wanted to tell him they were going to see each other more. And truthfully, him being there wasn’t exactly the surprise he had in mind planned for the Gryffindor.

 

 He was getting ready to lay on the next bed when he felt someone’s gaze was on him. Madam Pomfrey?

 

“Tom?”

 

He turned around. A pair of green eyes stared at where he was standing. He sighed in relief as he undid the disillusionment charm on him.

 

“Hi,” he greeted back. “This wasn’t exactly how I imagined our meeting here, Harry,”

 

“You’re here,” Harry said as he tried to sit up.

 

Tom offered his hand, stabilizing the raven. “Surprise!”

 

Harry chuckled. They stared at each other, comfortable in the silence. Tom had forgotten the bed he was supposed to sleep in as he chose to sit on the same bed as Harry’s.

 

Harry looked fine. He still had the same unruly hair. Same grin. Same innocence just as before albeit the additional scars that marred his forehead.

 

“You’re here,” Harry repeated again.

 

“I am,”

 

“Why?”

 

Tom grinned. “Always the _why_ from you,” he said. “To watch your back, I guess,”

 

“Really?”

 

“A certain professor told me an interesting story,” he started to explain as a faint blush appeared on Harry’s face. “She told me a little lion is in need of help,”

 

“Professor McGonagall?” Harry asked. Tom nodded. “Didn’t know you have good relationship with her,”

 

“I don’t,” Tom shrugged. “But I guess she really likes you for her to owl me. Got to say I’m a little mad at you. Thought you’re supposed to tell me everything,”

 

Tom wouldn’t forget the first time he heard of Harry’s _misfortune_ from Professor McGonagall. The lady was so worried she ended up using all her influence to call him back to Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore didn’t agree at first of course if it wasn’t for her threatening to let go of her position. She did mention Professor Snape had parts to play in bringing him back which surprised him because the potion master didn’t care about a student’s wellbeing.

 

“You will start killing people if I do,”

 

“I am not that bad!” he retorted back half-heartedly. 

 

“Tell me you haven’t done anything to them,”

 

“I haven’t done anything,”

 

“Tell me straight into my eyes. No lying,”

 

Tom’s lips thinned.

 

“I haven’t—maybe a bit?” he admitted.

 

“See?”

 

“I only land them to detention for the whole year! And to be honest, they deserve more!” Tom defended himself.

 

Harry snorted. “I can see you’re planning to do more,”

 

“Well—”

 

“Really, Tom? A professor shouldn’t take advantage like that,”

 

“I’m not—how do you know?”

 

“Madam Pomfrey told me. Well—I mean I put the pieces together,”

 

“Of course, you did,”

 

Harry smiled. Tom smiled back.

 

“I’m glad you’re here,” Harry said after a while, averting his gaze to his own hands. “I mean—”

 

“You know I won’t be here forever, yes?” Tom asked, not letting him to continue his sentence. Harry weakly nodded. “But you know I will not leave you here alone unprotected, right?”

 

“I have Fred and George and I still got into accident,”

 

Chuckling, Tom patted Harry’s head. “Well, they aren’t me.”

 

“What are you going to do?” Harry asked in suspicion. His brows almost linked together.

 

“Things only I can manage,”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Sleep, little lion. It’s no fun telling you now,”

 

“How am I going to sleep with that question in my mind?”

 

Tom shrugged nonchalantly. “You’ll find a way. I have first period class tomorrow. I should sleep,”

 

Tom stood and fluffed the pillow on the next bed.

 

“You’re going to sleep here? Is that okay?” Harry asked.

 

“Madam Pomfrey likes me,” Tom said, grinning. “If she doesn’t, she would chase me away the first day I stayed here. Do you know she can actually detect the person who came in here after midnight?”

 

Harry raised his brows.

 

“Sleep, Harry. Good things are coming for you,”

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-ed.

Tom was looking forward for the class he walking to – Defence Against the Dark Arts, Year 2. Granted that he had joined the class before but this time it was different; Harry would be there. He could only briefly meet the lad yesterday during lunch. But with many eyes looking at them, they just exchanged pleasantries with Harry thanking him for his help before. The twins, who had decided they were going to be Harry’s bodyguard, eyed him suspiciously before managing to drag the raven away as if they could shield him forever.

 

The class was empty when he arrived. Casting _tempus_ , he realized he might have come a little too early. It was okay he guessed even when he normally detested waiting.

 

He was silently reading the prepared notes when the door was opened to reveal a bushy-haired girl stepping in followed by a familiar redhead and more of their house. Expecting to see Harry trailing behind, he put down the parchment. Harry didn’t come in even after the last of them sat down. He was concerned but hid it pretty well. Harry didn’t actually get himself into trouble again, did he?

 

It wasn’t a minute later when the Slytherins made their appearance and he saw the boy he was searching for. It wasn’t so hard to spot him next to a flashy Draco Malfoy who – if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him – was keeping tab on Harry. The blonde didn’t make it that obvious though; it was his eyes’ doing which seemed to be more than attentive when it came to Harry. It was then he decided apart from the twins, he needed to be extra delicate when dealing with the Malfoy for he had yet to decide if he was a friend or a foe.

 

Harry took sometimes before finally made his way to the second row; next to Neville. The empty spot at his back was quickly filled with the presence of not surprisingly Draco Malfoy and another Slytherin Tom recognized as Zabini.

 

The class settled for a mellow murmurs and whispers. Everyone pretty much got used to Gilderoy Lockhart purposely entered a bit later for a more dramatic entrance. That day however, dramatic was an understatement.

 

Lockhart came in with a big black cage levitated in front of him. It should bring no more than raised brows if it wasn’t for what inside – a two headed snake. The professor flashed his teeth as he walked the aisle as if it was a runaway, enjoying the gasps from the audience. Tom snorted.

 

Mildly annoyed, he vanished his notes in an instant and took his place at the corner of the room. His eyes caught Harry’s who mouthed asking if it was his doing. Tom gestured no but he doubted Harry would believe him.

 

Or maybe he did play a part on whatever Lockhart was planning. He might have gone a little overboard of showing his teaching skills to the upper years; it wasn’t that hard making girls went _oohh_ on him with his look and the boys seemed to prefer his explanation better when he went to tables to help them with spells. Probably Lockhart thought by bringing serpents would somehow prove he would be the one whom the students should admire.

 

Did he forget that it was Tom who was a Parselmouth? Or was he had no idea of that?

 

“Good morning, everyone!” he greeted, almost sounding like he was singing.

 

“Good morning, Professor,” they greeted back. Harry was the least excited.

 

“Well, it’s good to see you back, Mr Potter,”

 

Harry gave him a weak smile. The professor pretended to keep himself busy, allowing more unasked questions filled the air. It was working, if his goal was to keep the class in wonder and suspense. Granger raised her hand, instantly putting the class into a silence.

 

“Yes, Miss Granger?”

 

“I thought we are looking into Smokescreen Spell today? I mean—”

 

“The incantation is _fumos_ and it was an easy practice. You can look it up and Mr Riddle here will provide you with the necessary notes. That would be no problem isn’t it, Mr Riddle?”

 

He nodded and tried so hard not to jeer at the professor but good for him, even when his attempt failed miserably, Lockhart was too _busy_ to notice. Harry chuckled from his seat, which put him back to good mood.

 

“I thought today would be a good day you meet my friends here,” he pointed to the snake. It was hissing loudly and Tom sneered as he heard it—them, both heads—cussed.

 

“Do they got a name?” a hand raised and asked. He didn’t see whom.

 

“Yes, of course. This one is—ummm, Scaley; and the other one is... well, Snakey,” he replied. Tom could not hold his laugh, so did Harry. But Lockhart noticed him first. “Any problem there?”

 

Tom shook his head, quickly averted his gaze to the stack of papers he duplicated seconds ago, ready to be distributed. He was sure he would be scolded but Lockhart stopped when they both noticed smokes that was starting to cloud the class. Tom was quicker to make it go away as his and Lockhart’s wands were pointing the students.  

 

“What on earth—”

 

“—sorry, Professor, Mr Riddle,” it was Harry who grinned sheepishly. “I got curious. Casted _fumos_  and… well…”

 

“Ah—curious child indeed. Well, Harry, maybe you would like to have a private lesson—no?—pity—well I guess you’ll be good enough on your own. I got something more special than _fumos_ here, you know. Since there are only us two who are able to control my pet here,”

 

It was Harry this time who fought to not jeer at the professor. And it was then he realized Lockhart must have not aware of his ability. Well, this got to be an interesting class indeed.

 

Tom quietly came closer to the cage to take a better look on the snake. They were pretty similar to the cobra he met on daily basis, the one that he named Aria and Veles. They both had black scales and looked equally threatening to the passer-by. But while Aria and Veles were more of the quite type, these one couldn’t stopped hissing – for the lack of better words – malicious comments. And he liked them already.

 

“ _Stupid human!_ ”

 

“ _How dare he gives such names?!_ ”

 

“ _And what on earth are we doing here?_ ”

 

“ _Must’ve thought we’re interesting_ ,”

 

“ _Should let him know what we did to that man before him_ ,”

 

“Mr Riddle, it would be very dangerous if you come too close to the cage. Their bites are deadly. Let someone skilled handled them will you?” Lockhart warned once he noticed him, “Mr Potter?” the professor gestured Harry to the front.

 

Tom didn’t move from his spot though. He kept his cool and that seemed to make the snakes took interest in him.

 

“ _This guy is not afraid of us. Do you think he will hiss nonsense too like the blonde?_ ”

 

“ _Doesn’t seem like one who need more attention. He’s good looking. I reckon if he—_ ”

“ _Our last ‘caretaker’ is a very handsome lad but he treated us no more than a mean for money making creature. I don’t expect much from him,_ ”

 

“ _This one is better looking than that stupid ogre. Shouldn’t be that bad. I mean, I would kill him first if he dared to do the same thing to us,_ ”

 

“ _He’s an ogre now, huh?_ ”

 

Tom flashed a quick smile at them before it morphed into a cold demeanour he usually had. He knew one of the heads saw him and tried to inform the other. He shifted his focus back to the class where Lockhart spouted more nonsense hissings.

 

“Next, _ssssss ss sss._ Please remember this one because it will save your life. It means ‘stop’,”

 

Harry must have it enough as he took his seat, refused to participate in what appear to be a hissing lesson. He gave excuse his headache was coming.

 

Tom on the other hand had contemplated on whether hr should just let the snake go and proved to everyone what they had just learnt won’t actually stop them from being attacked. If anything, they only agitated snakes more and probably gave indirect invitation to be eaten alive. And if Tom hadn’t known better, their survival chance, if Lockhart decided to open the cage, laid solely on whether they want to torture the professor first or last.

 

At the end however, he chose to busied himself with notes for the next class. Tom had decided going against his intention of creating havoc. He refused to stoop to the Weasley Twins’ level despite how tempting it sounded. Plus, he had his suspicion Harry would strangle him if he did.

 

He must have been too engrossed in his reading that the next thing he knew; everyone was screaming their hearts out.

 

“It’s out! It’s out! Professor, DO SOMETHING!”

 

“ _Run, run, you, imbecile human! I wonder which one I shall eat first,_ ”

 

Lockhart ran first while the students hastily tried to stand on the table. Some made it but with the chaos that echoed, some can’t help but fell on the floor. The Weasley boy and his friends made managed to lift up their legs off the floor quicker than most of the class but his mouth couldn’t stop profanities that came out – understandable still. Granger took extra measure of putting them inside protective charm but it did take a few tries before she managed to put up a proper one. Malfoy on the other hand somehow managed to keep his grace during the commotion.

 

“ _Get that stupid pompous blonde first_ ,” one head hissed.

 

True to its words, they chase the professor. Lockhart jumped to the back first, spotting Tom who was still calm.

 

“Riddle! Call for help! Hurry!” he said as he tried to open the door.

 

“Where are you going, professor?” he asked. “Thought you ask me to look for help?”

 

“I—no—I—I’ll do it, it’s much faster that way,” he stuttered. “Harry can handle them, I believe. You too, I guess—good practise, don’t you think. I’ll say good things about you to the headmaster later,”

 

Tom was fuming. He really, really, really wanted the snake to bite the professor right there and then. Maybe Harry will understand. He will make Harry understand if he didn’t. And he was sure the twins would be more than happy to agree that harming Lockhart was not a serious offense.

  

But before he could do anything, the snakes had already slithered their way to the door and effectively made Lockhart jumped back. He ran to the front instead, screamed for his life and manage to grab Harry to be his shield in the process.

 

“What the—”

 

 Harry, who was perplexed, found himself to lose the ability to speak as Scaley and Snakey approached at an alarming rate.

 

“ _Go away, you scrawny kid!_ ” one head shouted… hissed loudly.

 

“ _We don’t want to eat you! We want the coward’s hiding behind you!_ ”

 

As they got closer and Harry showed no sign to use his ability in good use, Tom quickly stepped in front of Harry. His wand was up, still calculating whether to kill the beautiful creature or displayed what he can do.

 

“ _Stop!_ ” Harry finally found his voice. “ _Please,_ ”

 

The snake froze on the spot, wondering if it was him talking. If Tom didn’t know better, he would’ve assumed the weird head movement made by the snake was caused by a terrible headache instead of it was their way showing amazement when they realized it was Harry who was speaking.

 

“ _I see… a real speaker_ ,”

 

“ _Would you mind making a way for us to access the human at the back?_ ”

 

“ _He’s a teacher,_ ” Harry said.

 

“ _But he’s annoying,_ ”

 

“ _We kill those who annoys us, or at least harm them,_ ”

 

“ _So, would you please stand aside?_ ”

 

“ _That wouldn’t be necessary,_ ” Tom interjected before Harry could utter a reply. “ _I don’t like him either but I do think biting him here is not a good idea. This is not your ground after all,_ ”

 

“ _You speak too! That’s wonderful! It’s been a while since we spoke to human!_ ”

 

“ _Wonderful it is,_ ” the other head stated in a mocking way, not to Tom or Harry though. “ _I think it would be more wonderful if you could give the blonde up,_ ”

 

“ _He’s a teacher,_ ”

 

“ _A fool one,_ ”

 

“ _Indeed,_ ”

 

“ _You know what’s more wonderful? If we all could stop having the conversation here and made the eyes who are looking at us are looking somewhere else._ ” Harry intercepted, ignoring the building whispers in the class. “ _This guy here is Tom. Tom got a nice room with beautiful snake portrait you might want to see. If you bite Lockhart now, I can assure you won’t make it pass the door. He got a lot of fans and the headmaster will be forced to kill you,_ ”

 

“ _Equally stupid?_ ” a head asked, the one that Tom suspected had crush on him.

 

“ _What equally stupid?_ ” Harry asked.

 

“ _His fan, obviously. He stinks. No one should like that smell. Do you want us to bite them too?_ ”

 

“ _They are,_ ” Tom answered. “ _But no need for the biting. It’s a waste of effort. They’ll stay fool still. Now, would you like to come to me?_ ”

 

The snake didn’t wait any longer before climbing up Tom’s torso and settled around his neck. “ _You know, if we kill them all, the world would have less fool,_ ”

 

Tom chuckled.

 

His eyes met Harry and signalled him to go back to his seat. The whispers were getting louder as their attempts to talk in slow voice failed miserably. Not that it was entirely wrong though.

 

Malfoy was the first to get back on his seat after Harry. He tapped on the raven’s shoulder asking if he was okay. Harry nodded with a little more enthusiasm that Tom had liked. Tom hated seeing that but that shouldn’t be his priority right now. Malfoy can wait.

 

“Professor?” he called Lockhart who was still in shock. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the snake or his Parseltongue ability; maybe both. “Are you okay?”

 

“I—uh—well, g—good work, Riddle,” Lockhart said in total defeat.

 

“Thank you, Professor,” Tom said politely. “If you don’t mind, I would like to take the snake to my room away from the students. We don’t want them to roam around threatening to kill everyone, are we?”

 

“That’s—that’s what they’ve b—been saying?”

 

Tom smiled, not offering any answer.

 

“T—then you should go now, Mr Riddle. Don’t come back… I—I mean everyone are still in much shock. It would be only wise if I end the class early,”

 

“I take my leave first, Professor.”

 

So he waved his wand and his notes that were left on table flew to his bag before finding the bag on his hand.

 

It was a bit dramatic to walk out of the class like that, he knew. He felt like he was becoming Lockhart but seeing Harry’s grin as he strode passed him made the taller guy felt good, giddy even. Maybe he should do it more often. Or maybe he could learn how to act dramatic from the professor.  

 

For once, he didn’t mind doing flashy things and risked the unwanted fan letters in front of his door.

 

Harry was smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos and comments while I was away. I am very sorry I couldn't post the new chapter earlier. I was so overwhelmed with my works that I abandoned my writing. I still have tonnes to do but I guess taking a bit time from all those things and get back to this does make me feel better. X


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-ed.

Gilderoy Lokhart, preferred not to make his age public, felt the need to hide his face under the bed for the first time in a long while.

 

He really thought the Riddle boy was no more than a brilliant student Hogwarts once had. When it was decided Riddle would come to assist him in teaching, he didn’t feel threatened at all. Sure, the black-haired was a very good looking lad but that cold demeanour won’t get him more fan than he himself had. You _got_ to be friendly and always flash your smile in confidence even when only a single human being was around; he did just that and look where he was – a five-time winner of Witch’s Weekly Most Charming Smile. And thanks to his natural ability to sweet talk, becoming an Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League was an easy task (the hard one were to write the books and make sure those who _willingly_ let him took all the glory stayed _willing_ ).

 

But no, Riddle proved to be more than a handsome face (despite not as good as his) and a brain which actually functioned more than well. Not to mention the Parseltongue ability he desperately he wished he had. He wasn’t lying when he said he found someone in India who would teach him the language. Too bad the combination of Imperius and Memory Charm may have reacted badly to the wizard who was supposed to be the next reason for him to write another book.

 

And now he had to meet the headmaster over the unfortunate incident in the class. He didn’t worry if he was to be held responsible. He can say it was all an accident and maybe, if he could put his word in a good way, all blames would fall to Tom Riddle. Then Riddle will regrettably have to leave, which will be good for him; therefore, not so regretful after all.

 

He knew Dumbledore trusted him enough not to sack him but the thought this news might reach the students in a wrong way did not comfort him at all; especially when the Slytherins were there witnessing him being a coward that he always was. And if the students decide to bring it to the reporters, everything he had worked to build his reputation would come to a naught. Terrible.

 

Taking a deep breath, Lockhart said the password and stepped onto the hidden moving staircase as the gargoyle opened the path. He confidently strode in but stopped abruptly when he opened the door.

 

“Headmaster! I am… oh, hello I see it wasn’t only me today,”

 

Of course the headmaster had to call Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape along with not so surprisingly, Tom Riddle. They (the portraits of the previous headmasters included) were all glaring at him, the Gryffindor’s head especially, as if accidentally releasing angry two-headed snake was so serious!

 

“I assume you know why you were here today, Gilderoy,” Albus asked in a calm manner. _Not so angry then,_ he thought.

 

“I—yes, of course. There have been a little incident—”

 

“—LITTLE?” McGonagall cut him. “It’s not little when students are put in danger! What are you thinking bringing snakes into the class when you have no idea how to control them yourself?!”

 

“Ah, Minerva. First of all, I brought _one_ snake. It just has two heads,” he said, defending himself. “Second, I believe if anything went wrong, which is quite funny because it did go wrong—sorry, thought a joke would be appreciated here—I believe Harry would save the day.”

 

“Where in your thick skull think Mr Potter would _save_ the day?” Snape asked, in his usual cold and demeaning tone.

 

“You witness it yourself. He can speak to snakes. That’s enough for me,”

 

“He just realized he’s a Parselmouth and _that’s enough for you_?” McGonagall asked in disbelief.

 

“Well, in my defence—”

 

“Mr Riddle here told me that Mr Potter froze when the snake tried to attack you,” Snape added.

 

“And you make him your human shield! How could you treat a student like that? We are supposed to protect them!” Minerva berated him before he managed to say anything. “Albus!”

 

He had not expected that particular action would be discussed too. He was panic back then. And he had no idea how to counter that claim that would look him look good now.

 

“As much as I agree that Mr Potter could—possibly—save the day and prevent catastrophic, it is also true a student shall not be treated like that, Gilderoy,” the headmaster sighed, finally speaking.

 

“Possibly? POSSIBLY?” Minerva finally lost her temper. “We are lucky Riddle was there! Potter was too young to be given such responsibility to take care of everyone else when he couldn’t take care of himself!”

 

“Oh, I think you underestimate what the boy can do, Minerva. He has good skills and I reckon that was a good time for him to use it,” Lockhart disagreed.

 

“Good skills? It is not a skill when it comes to Parseltongue! You cannot possibly learn the language because it is passed down through blood! And he got bullied because of something he couldn’t control and you make it worst by forcing him to use it again!” she shouted her lungs.

 

“Oh, no no no… I am not making it worst. If anything, I just prove that Parseltongue is good. You see, what Harry did was honourable. I just provide him chance to prove himself to be a true Gryffindor!”

 

McGonagall went silent, as if making any sound would kill her when he finished saying that. Merlin, Lockhart never thought he could actually defend himself! Maybe all those practise in sweet talking did more good than just getting him a few books to write.

 

“Headmaster,” Snape interjected before she wreaked havoc in the office, which was close judging how red she became. “I have Slytherins who complained multiple times of Professor Lockhart inability to teach properly. He almost made a conjured snake attacked before and now he brought a real one which actually did slithers around the class and threatening to maim everybody on its way. And as the head of the house, I demand appropriate action to be taken on the person who traumatized the students in my care,”

 

Dumbledore took his time before responding to Snape’s statement which seem to put Lockhart and McGonagall on edge. Snape on the other hand managed to keep his cool.

 

“Is it true, Tom?” Dumbledore aimed the question at Riddle who chose to quitely stand straight next to Snape. “That the serpent wished to hurt everyone,”

 

“No, headmaster,” Riddle replied. Still composed.

 

“Aha! See! The snake is harmless!” Lockhart said, almost jumping.

 

“Not everyone. Just Professor Lockhart,” the lad added.

 

“What do you mean?” Lockhart asked, paler. It went with no answer.

 

He could hear McGonagall stifled her laugh while Snape didn’t even try to hide his smirk. Dumbledore too, almost grinned if it the situation they were in wasn’t too serious.

 

“And you’re sure about this?” the headmaster asked again. “That no students were threatened?”

 

“Yes, Sir. You can call Potter here if you want a confirmation. Although I personally don’t think it’s a good idea since it will add more to the rumour that teachers favour him greatly. It won’t do him any good,”

 

“Very well,”

 

“Professor Dumbledore, Sir, if you please,” Lockhart raised his hand. “If you give another chance to prove myself, I shall guarantee no incident like this shall happen in my class again. I will personally apologize to Mr Potter too if you require me to do so—no, I will do it the first thing after I step out of this office. And I shall do everything you ask me to or maybe, if you want, I shall request the Daily Prophet to write good things about the school. You know, everyone will be assured that you are the best headmaster this school ever had! That, if you let me stay,”

 

“You are staying here, Professor Lockhart,” Dumbledore announced.

 

“ALBUS! This is preposterous! He shouldn’t be allowed—”

 

“—under the condition that Mr Riddle will now join every class you taught.”

 

“Oh, thank you for the generosity,” Lockhart beamed, “but I don’t think that it is necessary. Mr Riddle didn’t really help teaching in my class,”

 

“Albus, surely you—”

 

“—I am with my decision, Minerva,” Dumbledore stated. “It is Mr Riddle in each of your class or you shall find yourself not in the castle any longer, Professor Lockhart,”

 

“Albus, please,” McGonagall pleaded. “Why won’t you just pass the class to Mr Riddle? He is more than qualified to teach the students,”

 

“I am afraid, Minerva, that not all students will find that solution agreeable,”

 

“You mean the Gryffindors,” Snape added boringly.

 

“Not just Gryffindors, Severus. Surely you don’t think the older years would feel uncomfortable having their former Head Prefect teaching them Defence?”

 

“I don’t see any problem in that!” Minerva added. “Mr Riddle was well-respected as a Head Boy! Some of the upper years did tell me Riddle is a much better teacher than some of us in this room,”

 

“Some might resort to cause mischief in class, Minerva.” Dumbledore denied her again. “I believe a certain pair of twins have been trying to prank Mr Riddle ever since they started Hogwarts. We don’t want a teacher got humiliated in class, do we?”

 

“If you are talking about Mr Fred and George Weasley, they did try to prank _every_ teacher in the school. You included! And Severus too!” she defended, not caring if Snape got annoyed over the mention.

 

“Regardless, my view stands. I hope you understand, Mr Riddle,”

 

Riddle stared Dumbledore with hint of disbelief before he finally nodded. He might look regal while doing the simple gesture but no one would’ve missed the irk that came with it.

 

Lockhart assessed the quick exchange carefully. He sensed some sort of contentious air between them which he knew he would take advantages of. How—he wasn’t sure yet.

 

“But, Albus—”

 

“It’s okay, Professor,” Tom said. “I am here for a short period after all. And as much as I would appreciate the post of Defence teacher, I think Professor Lockhart is a better choice than me. Don’t you think so?”

 

“Well—of… of course,” Lockhart said, not expecting the compliment. Things he had to say in mind vanished in an instant. “We should only let the most experienced, smartest people to be the teachers indeed.” He added with newly profound confidence.

 

Probably meeting Dumbledore tonight wasn’t so bad. Sure, Riddle following him in each of his class would be a hassle; but the boy was good at preparing notes and pretty helpful when it came to dunderheads in his class. Who was he to complain?

 

* * *

 

A normal wizard would have expelled the incompetent Lockhart and taken him as the new Defence teacher, but Dumbledore wasn’t exactly normal. Where he thought the professor would show more professionalism, Tom Riddle had to be grateful that Lockhart’s plan to put the blame on him was never mentioned, not that it would affect him negatively anyway. He knew how to use words to his advantages too. Plus, knowing what the professor was thinking wasn’t that hard when he had already master the art of Legilimens; Lockhart was definitely not a formidable Occlumence.

 

He had purposely let himself lost composure when Dumbledore announced his decision. He knew while Lockhart may be lacking in many aspects, he was a pretty good observer. He knew Lockhart would keep a close eye on him and Tom would use it to his advantage.

 

So when he finally excused himself from the Headmaster’s office, he made sure to walk not far from Lockhart. He was still thinking how everything would pan out when he spotted Professor McGonagall walking side by side with his former Potion professor not far from him.

 

“Mr Riddle!” the professor called him before he could go to her, seemingly notice his presence first. “A second, please,”

 

He raised his brows, pretending to be baffled despite knowing what the professor was attempting to do.

 

“I would like too—umm—apologize,” she started. True to Tom’s prediction. “It shouldn’t happen that way,”

 

He smiled, shaking his head, putting the best comforting expression he had perfected over the years. He could see that Professor Snape knew he had something in his sleeve, but the professor chose not to act upon it.

 

“It’s not your fault, Professor. It’s not anyone’s fault,” he said, noticing Lockhart walked slowly towards them.

 

“Still, to undermine your ability is a bit—”

 

“I am fine, really. Plus, I don’t think I want to be saddled with full responsibilities of a true defence teacher like Professor Lockhart,”

 

“True teacher, my arse,” Professor McGonagall said before realizing her words. “Sorry, I’m not supposed to talk like that,”

 

“You know our Headmaster had certain prejudice towards Slytherin, Minerva. We all should see this coming,”

 

“But—”

 

“Maybe he thought if I am to be the sole teacher for the subject, I would lead the Gryffindors to the Chamber of Secrets and let them die there,” Tom added, slightly raising his words so Lockhart could hear it.

 

Professor McGonagall was quick to dismiss the idea saying it was ridiculous since no one really knew where the chamber was before scrutinizing him.

 

“You don’t—don’t you?” she asked, wondering.

 

“I’m afraid I have to excuse myself, Professor,” he dodged the question. “Who knew what my new friend decides to do while I’m away,”

 

“Very well then,” she replied after a moment, knowing that Tom wouldn’t give her answer that she wanted. “Have a good evening, Riddle,”

 

She walked away, leaving Professor Snape with him and ignored Lockhart who had found himself standing together in the group.

 

“Be careful, Riddle,” Professor Snape simply warned him. Tom nodded and that was all it took to make Professor Snape leave for the dungeon.

 

Not wanting to be seen openly showing his hatred towards the other Professor, Tom politely bow his head feigning respect.

 

“See you tomorrow, Professor Lockhart,”

 

“Don’t forget the notes for the fifth year, Riddle,” he reminded him.

 

“Yes, Sir,” he replied, smiling.

 

He wasn’t so sure if the professor would actually take his bait. But to go on about the Chamber of Secrets at that moment wouldn’t be a good idea. There was still tomorrow. And if needed, he’d use every possible means to get Lockhart did what he intended.

 

First thing to do was to check on Harry, see if the boy was truly alright. Then he planned to make some deals with the newly acquired snakes, see if both heads were willing to help him get some business done, discreetly of course. Then if everything went well, he should visit the chamber again and refined the plan he had in mind.

 

Lockhart should have never touch what belonged to him. He will regret it. Tom will make sure of that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I humbly bow my head for the late update. I hope it worth the wait. 
> 
> P/S: For some reason I want to let everyone knows that English is not my native language. I paid extra attention in class to learn the language because I wish to read Philosopher Stone without having to refer the dictionary when I stumbled upon words.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-ed.

The last time he was berated was when he was around 6; when he got into a fight with Billy Stubbs, one of the muggle boy he had to live with in the orphanage he grew up in. After freak accidents that had been associated with him kept on happening whenever someone ticked his nerve, no one would dare to raise their voice. Mrs Cole, the matron of Wool’s Orphanage was probably the only one who would still occasionally scold him. But the woman tended to disappear before Tom could blink his eyes. Maybe she was afraid of what might happen if she stayed. He didn’t really mind though. At least the women didn’t totally abandon him like others did when he threw tantrums; but still, that didn’t automatically make her any less unpleasant.

 

And who would have thought at the age of 20, he would be berated again. Only this time, it was from a boy who was 8 years younger than him. Despite that, he knew the boy won’t be harmed like everyone else who dared to be on his bad side.

 

“Tell me, now!” Harry raised his voice, both hands on his waist. “What on Merlin’s name you are trying to do?”

 

“Nothing,” he replied in his usual bored tone. This one filled with amusement though as he stirred his tea and watched Harry who was much shorter than him tried to give him a scolding of his life.

 

“You are trying to pull of something stupid, aren’t you?” Harry asked, brows almost linked in frustration.

 

“Not stupid. Brilliant. The twins would approve,” he denied.

 

“That’s mean it’s stupid!”

 

“No, it’s not,”

 

A cushion flew and hit Tom’s face.

 

“He’s won’t stop bothering me about teaching him the damn snake language!” Harry said, almost pulled his hair bald.

 

Tom snickered. “Sorry about that, I really thought he would leave you alone after the last time. He’s more tenacious that I originally thought,”

 

Another cushion flew again, barely missed Tom’s head this time.

 

“That’s it,” Harry huffed. “I’m going to find a new friend who won’t make my life miserable by making Lockhart chased me around the castle,”

 

“You don’t know how to make friends!” Tom casually said as Harry walked to his quarters door, knowing the boy won’t take it to his heart.

 

“I’ll figure out how. I can ask Fred and George,” Harry said, ignoring him.

 

“They won’t help you,”

 

“How do you know that?” Harry asked, curious. And annoyed.

 

“I will let them know later,” Tom shrugged.

 

“If Aescwine and Albertyne haven’t already decide not to harm you in any way, I would’ve asked them to bite you now,” Harry said, referring to the sleepy snakes (formerly known as Snakey and Scaley) which were resting inside a conjured small stone pit.

 

“You can’t attack a teacher, Harry,” Tom replied, sipping another gulp of tea.

 

“I can if I’m in this room. You yourself said you’ll be my teacher only when we’re outside. Here, just Tom and Harry and I’m going to honour that by finding a way how I can wipe off that smirk on your face,”

 

“Good luck with that,”

 

“ _Really? You two won’t bite him for me?_ ” Harry asked, directing the question to the snakes.

 

“ _If we bite Master Riddle, he won’t give us rats anymore, Little Master,”_ Aescwine hissed, not caring if some sort of duel was about to happen between them.

 

“ _And we like this pit. If you can make something similar or better, maybe we’ll consider biting Master Riddle. Just a bit though. We need him to fetch us the rats,”_ Albertyne added.

 

“ _I hate all three of you right now,_ ” Harry said, giving up. “I am so going to find another friend,”

 

“Look in the library. Maybe you’ll find one,” Tom taunted.

 

“I will definitely do that!”

 

Tom chuckled. “And don’t forget your homework. Lockhart will make you attend his extra class if you don’t. You can’t have that, can you?”

 

“Copy that! Bloody hell—I’m supposed to hate you and disagree everything you said,”

 

“See you during dinner, Harry,”

 

Harry stuck his tongue out before finally walking out of the door, leaving Tom smiling ear to ear.

 

It was when he was with the boy that he let his guards down. He expressed himself much better with Harry and he knew Harry did too. Tom still didn’t trust people though, which explained why he kept his straight face outside of the room.

 

While he completely shut other people out, Harry in the other hand had no problem accepting new people in his life; although Fred and George had to approve them first. So far, Harry had almost all the elves, a weird girl in Ravenclaw who out of nowhere would offer him something to eat, and an upper year prefect called Diggory who would deduct point from those who harassed him; as— _friend—_ if the word friend wasn’t too much to use.

 

It was good, he guessed. Granted the elves mainly treated students as kind as they would be to them, the girl who dare to be near Harry was just plain odd and Diggory… he wasn’t sure what to think of the lad yet, but it was all still good. His time at Hogwarts was ticking and he did want Harry to have more than just the twins to be there for him when needed. He had no intention to stay any longer than he was contracted. He had goals to achieve and those goals won’t go anywhere if Dumbledore was near. He didn’t know why the coot was so prejudice against him and he was not about to give the headmaster any chances to ruin everything for him.

 

“ _Aescwine, Albertyne_ ,” Tom hissed once he was sure Harry wont suddenly come into his quarters. “ _How’s the task I’ve given you?_ ”

 

“ _It’s done. He’ll be ready when the chamber is opened_ ,” they hissed back. “ _Maim, not kill. He understood that perfectly,”_

 

“ _Excellent,_ ” Tom hissed, smirking. “ _If you’re done lazing around, you might want to go to the back room to eat.”_

 

In an instant, they raised their head and left the pit. Tom had the thought that if the two heads had a body each of their own, they would be racing to see which of them could eat more rats while shouting profanity to each other.

 

He was about to take a quick nap before going to the Great Hall for dinner when he felt eyes were watching him.

 

“ _Master_ ,” Albertyne spoke. “ _You should tell Master Harry of your plan_ ,”

 

“ _I know what I’m doing_ ,” Tom replied, closing his eyes as soon as he opened them.

 

“ _You really should_ ,” Aescwine added. “ _If he knew, he’ll be mad at you_ ,”

 

“ _Which is why this shouldn’t be told to him_ ,” Tom said, ignoring them. The snakes looked at each other. “ _If you want to eat, you really should go now. One more word and I’ll make those rats disappear_ ,”

 

It took no longer than a second for them to finally slithered to the back room.

 

He let out a deep sigh. He never questioned his finalized move. He was always confident that everything will work according to plan and even when there was a glitch, his plan still went through.

 

And now the snake reminded him of what Harry might think, he wondered if planning to have Lockhart met the basilisk that has been guarding the Chamber of Secrets all these years was too much. He knew Lockhart will find his way to the entrance of the chamber and judging by the fact that he had been asking Harry few words in Parseltongue, maybe the professor already did.

 

Will Harry be mad? Most probably yes. But he was Tom Riddle. He knew how to get off with words. Harry will understand. He will make Harry understand. He was just looking after the boy after all.

 

_Maim, not kill._

 

The basilisk’s task was to main. The killing part was his.

 

* * *

 

Never in his thought Harry Potter wanted to strangle one Tom Riddle who had been his friend for the past year. He, who had yet to reach the library to find new friend, was forced to sit in an empty classroom with his Defence professor sitting across him, looking way too excited to his liking.

 

It has been around two months since Lockhart _apologized_ over the incident. It was done in the Great Hall in front of all students while he was finishing his lunch with the twins. Lockhart had dramatically grabbed his hands and started spouting nonsense he couldn’t understand before he caught the word ‘sorry’, which was only said once in the ten minutes’ speech.

 

After that, Lockhart was literally everywhere he went. The twins were some sort of his saviour when it came to preventing Lockhart babbling too much in front of him. But if the twins were not around, Harry chose to sit in the library—ignoring even his meal time—just so that the professor won’t disturb him more (Lockhart was banned from the library after Madam Pince caught him giving one of his over-enthusiastic speeches inside).

 

It was around that time he knew Luna, a first-year student who loved to talk about things he never heard. Despite not understanding her words, Harry found himself to be comfortable around the girl. She probably noticed his stomach growled almost all the time that Luna took it to herself to bring at least a sandwich everywhere so that if she met Harry, she can pass the food to him.

 

When friendship developed between them, some people seemed to take offence. Both of them were called names whenever they were seen together and the girl antiques didn’t do much helping to make it go down. Luna kept on smiling though as if those jeers never affected her. It didn’t sit well with Harry though. Luna was so kind to him and he had to do something. So he started to talk back to those mean students, gaining a profoundly new level of confidence in him but as a result, he got harassed more.

 

Which brought him to know Cedric, a Hufflepuff who was in the same year as Fred and George. He was pushed to the same metal armour that landed him in the infirmary and the clinging sound it made when the armour hit the floor pulled him back to memory of pain; when Cedric suddenly showed up to help. Not only that that, the prefect had the courtesy to calm him down right after that when he almost got a panic attack. He made sure the heads of house of each student who harassed him that day —Hufflepuff’s Professor Sprout included—were aware of the situation too. He heard rumours saying Cedric had gone down to his knee to beg Professor McGonagall to deduct points from the Gryffindors but knowing the professor, the prefect should not have to do that. Since then, (after being critically approved by Fred and George) Cedric volunteered to watch his back whenever the twins weren’t around.

 

But none of them were there with him at the moment. He was dragged to classroom within minutes before he could reach the library. If Fred and George were there, they would somehow manage to take him away from the situation by mentioning any other teacher’s names (Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape were their favourite) before Lockhart could grab his shoulders. Luna had to do nothing; Lockhart just never been near him when he was with her. Cedric on the other hand would insist to tag along them which make whatever Lockhart planned to do with him would never be done. But again, none of them were there.

 

“So, it’s been a while since we manage to sit like this, Harry,” Lockhart started, his hand locked the door and casted few privacy charms while displaying his charming smile. Harry wasn’t affected though.

 

“I have to be in the library, Sir. Err… Madam Pince would be very angry if I return the books late,” Harry lied. There was no library book with him.

 

“Ah… then I will make this quick,” straightening his wrinkle-free robes, Lockhart continued. “I’ve been helping myself to read few books about Parseltongue and being brilliant I am; I’ve taught myself to speak bits of it. The thing is, I couldn’t be sure if what I said is on point. So, this is a bit embarrassing for me to say but, would you be kind to see my progress?”

 

“I’m sorry but—you are asking me to teach you Parseltongue?” Harry asked, needing confirmation, which he desperately hoped that was not the case. “Parseltongue couldn’t be taught as far as I know,”

 

“No… no… not teaching. Merely see my progress. And tell me where to improve. Easy, yes?”

 

Harry’s raised his brows in confusion. How was that not teaching?

 

“I don’t think I can do that. I’m lacking in many ways, Professor,” he said, trying to decline.

 

“Oh, Harry. You might be lacking in lots of area,” Lockhart said, oblivious to Harry’s annoyance. “But all you have to do is tell me if what I’m about to say is perfect or not,”

 

“Fine, then. Give a try,” Harry sighed, deciding saying no will only drag the meeting longer.

 

“Alright. Ready? Here we go,” taking a deep breath, Lockhart started hissing. “ _Ssssss sssssssss sss ssssss_ ,”

 

Harry understood nothing but random hissing sound.

 

“No? Alright, let me do it again. Listen carefully, Potter. I think you space out just now. _Ssss sss ssssssss ssss_ ,”

 

Harry shook his head.

 

“No? How about _sss s ssssssss sss_ …”

 

It went on for the whole hour before Lockhart finally gave up, much to Harry’s relief. He had forgotten about going to the library completely by the time the professor stopped making the strange hissing sound. All he can think about now were food and the Great Hall, and the kitchen and the elves who would be more than happy to serve bring him hot meals.

 

“This is not going to work,” Lockhart regretfully moaned. “Oh, I know! I’m so brilliant. Harry, would you please say, ‘open’?”

 

“O—open?” he asked, baffled.

 

“Yes, simple word—open,”

 

“Open,” Harry simply said, not caring anymore.

 

Taken aback, Lockhart bummed his head on the desk. “In Parseltongue!”

 

“Oh, right… open,”

 

“That is still a human language,”

 

Harry took a breath, knowing exactly why he couldn’t speak the language—there wasn’t any snake to speak to. Imagining Aescwine and Albertyne were there…

 

“ _Open,_ ”

 

If everyone had a bulb that would light up when he or she felt elated, Lockhart’s would shine so bright it would cause temporary blindness.

 

“THIS IS GREAT!” the professor exclaimed, almost dancing as he suddenly stood up to celebrate.

 

Harry looked at him in bewilderment. He just wanted to get out of there. He was very hungry and he needed to find a friend; the latter can be done much later.

 

“Professor, will you allow me to go right now?” he asked.

 

Lockhart stayed still almost immediately. He scrutinized Harry from top to bottom and a devilish smile formed on his lips.

 

Harry didn’t feel comfortable. From where he was sitting, all he can see was someone who was trying to do something he won’t like. He knew the smile very well. Dudley and his friends wore them all the time before he had to run from them. And in this situation, it was no different. He wanted to run. But before he managed to stand, a wand was already pointed at him.

 

_Damn._

“I always knew you were special, Harry. Quiet; yet possess a very strong will to… live on,”

 

“Wha—”

 

“But never in my mind I would imagine a boy like you would be the one who would bring me to achieve another greatness. With you, I shall open the chamber and I will show to the whole wizarding world that it is me who discover the secret that the great Salazar Slytherin so desperately kept! Everyone will be saying my name! And I will be the wonder of the magic world!”

 

Harry had no idea what the man was talking about. He wanted no part in whatever the man had in mind. And how on earth his role was so important in opening this chamber that was supposed to be a secret?

 

“Professor, why—”

 

“I know most of your peers have been undermining my ability since the arrival of that Riddle boy, Harry. Guess what, the guy may be able to speak to snake but I am someone who are very gifted when it comes to memory charm and of course, Imperius curse.”

 

Lockhart had to explain no more. Harry understood right there and then how a person such as him manage to write books describing adventures no one in sane mind would think of going through. And such adventure did not happen only once but several times on top of that.

 

“You shall be my— _translator_. I figured when it comes to Slytherin, serpents shall be involved. So, you, Mr Harry Potter, are the key to my success,”

 

Harry saw the wand moved. He needed to dodge that.

 

But he couldn’t.

 

“Imperio,”

 

That was the last word Harry heard before he felt like he was flying as if trouble had never existed in his life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how to pronounce Aescwine and Albertyne correctly if you ask me. I googled for names and fell in love with how the names are spelt. ^^'
> 
> Until next time! x


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-ed.

Harry wasn’t in the Great Hall and it made Tom restless. His food left untouched. He only sipped the cold water since he got there, patiently waiting to see if Harry was still sulking over the whole being secretive thing. It had already passed 7.  There was small chance Harry would still be in the library but something was telling him the boy won’t be found there. The dormitories? Maybe, but as he saw the Weasley twins walked into the hall without Harry separating them in the middle, Tom felt the need to search the castle immediately.

 

Both of Fred and George had already known the pre-existing relationship between him and Harry. There was still animosity between the former Head Prefect and Hogwarts Most Troublesome Twins but they had silently agreed to put their difference aside for Harry. They refused to call him ‘Sir’ though but Tom was more than okay with that; he couldn’t imagine himself being hundred percent civil with those two either.

 

His gaze caught one of the twins, George he believed, and silently asked where Harry was. shrugged and exchange worried glance with his brother. From where he sat, both redheads seemed to be taken aback upon the realization something wasn’t right.

 

Without wasting more time, Tom stood, pushed his plate away and walked towards the twins in eerily calm manner.

 

“Follow me,” he ordered in a low voice, trying not to attract too many attentions.

 

It took them no hesitation to trail after him. Unfortunately, murmurs and whispered erupted as the students who were there saw how Fred and George were willing to walk behind Tom without trying to pull any prank on the teacher. They looked awfully serious on top of that. Tom ignored them all.

 

“Have you tried the library?” Fred asked even before they manage to leave the hall.

 

“He’s not there,” Tom replied, his uneasiness increased in every second.

 

“Well, have you checked?” George asked this time.

 

“No, but he’s not there,”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“Feeling,”

 

The twins scoffed but Tom gave no reaction.

 

“Kitchen?”

 

“Harry is not there,” a small voice answered the question.

 

It was Luna. She stood at the entrance of the Great Hall as if she was waiting for them for the whole day. In her hand, there was a small sandwich neatly wrapped in blue napkin.

 

“Do you know where is he?” Tom asked with hint of impatience, still walking and led them to a more secluded area.

 

“Somewhere in the castle, I don’t know where, Sir” she replied. “Those two do know, however,” she said, pointing at the twins.

 

Tom stopped and raised his brows in question.

 

“No, we don’t,” they spoke in unison.

 

“You should use the parchment you found, you know,” she said

 

“Which one?” Fred asked.

 

“The one you get during detention,”

 

Fred and George looked at each other. “But it’s useless,” George said.

 

“Take it out,” Tom instructed, not giving the twins chance to argue when he saw Fred was about to open his mouth.

 

George took out a small ragged-looking burgundy pouch from his robes and then pulled out some sort of a well-folded paper. Tom quickly snatched it from his hand and got frustrated when realizing it was just a normal blank parchment that was commonly used by students to write their essay.

 

“It’s useless,” Tom said, repeating George. “Where did you get this junk?”

 

“Filch’s office,” Fred said, snatching the parchment back from Tom. “We just haven’t figure it out why it was there. So theoretically speaking, it’s not useless… yet,”

 

This wasn’t good. Every minutes passed meant Harry situation could worsen. This Lovegood girl wasn’t exactly helping either. He can opt to search for him by slamming open closed door in every nook of the castle but it will be too slow. And he didn’t want to think what will happen if he was too late.

 

“Why did you take this, Fred?” Luna asked, her dreamy voice unchanged. She took the parchment and laid it flat on her palm.

 

“I supposed it’s a good stuff. Hey, Riddle, what if we ask—”

 

“—why is it good?” she asked again, cutting him.

 

“Because everything that ends up in his office means it was no good; not for us though. We love no good stuff. And I swear I’m going to use this—” his wand pointing at the parchment “—up to no good,”

 

Ink of black and red suddenly appeared on the once blank parchment and all of them sans Luna were left agape.

 

“ _Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present ‘The Marauder’s Map’_. What the—”

 

George took it from Luna’s hand and hastily unfolded the supposedly map. His eyes went wide upon realizing what it was.

 

“This is brilliant! This is Hogwarts’ floor map! And these names… why do they seem familiar? Why are they moving?” he questioned as he further unfolded it. “Hey, why ours are here?” he added, pointing at four dots. Each one labelled with their names.

 

“Empty classroom. Now!” Tom quickly directed them.

 

If Tom was right, the dots represented their location. And Lovegood was close to being right—the twins might not literally know where Harry was but they had something that knew.

 

They didn’t even make it to an empty classroom when Fred shoved all of them into old broom closet nearby. It was small but big enough to cater all four of them and with Tom immediately casted expansion charm, they managed to get enough space to lay the map down on the floor.

 

“Find Harry’s name. Quick!” Tom directed, ignoring the twins’ attempt to speak. They complied still.

 

With four eyes examining every spot, moving or not, it took them less than 5 minutes to find Harry. And when they realized the name that was written next to the boy, three of them wasted no time and raced to second floor, where the raven was supposed to be, leaving Luna behind.

 

“What if nothing really happened? Don’t you think we’re just making a scene?” Fred asked, huffing as the words left his mouth while running.

 

“Making scene is normal for us, dear brother. It’s this young teacher who needed to worry. He’s the teacher’s pet you know. Always the good one,” his twin answered.

 

He hated being called the teacher’s pet but they were right. Tom Riddle was known as a very composed guy who had extremely noble reputation in the school. Running like that would surely bring unwanted gossips. He knew being seen with the twins was already talk of Hogwarts. So he skilfully pointed his wand before the twins to cast a strong disillusionment charms on them.

 

“Thank you, for reminding me. Now, run faster!” he said, dashing quicker than before and eloquently avoided few students who walked pass him. The same thing couldn’t be said for Fred and George; he did hear _ouch_ and _hey_ at his back.

 

The stairs moved once when they had one more flight to climb on. They thought it will slow them down but it turned out their route to the classroom was shorten. In minutes, they arrived.

 

“It’s locked,” George said as he tried to open the door. Their disillusionment charmed had been taken down and a strong privacy spell was casted around them instead.

 

“Move,” Fred pushed George, “I’m going to blast the door. _Con_ —”

 

“Stop! That will be too strong. I’ll do it,” Tom stated. “Listen, once the door is blasted open, you two go in. Make sure Lockhart doesn’t know I’m here. _Bom_ —”

 

“—why?”

 

“Because he had another plan,” Luna voice answered.

 

Tom had no idea how on earth she managed to pass through the charms he casted earlier; no one should be able to go near them nor listen to their conversation. And why on Merlin’s name she was not short on breath? Even him, panted a bit when he arrived.

 

“Go on, Professor. Don’t mind me. I’ll just wait here and watch the surrounding for you,”

 

Tom scrutinized her before deciding arguing with Luna won’t go anywhere. He once again charmed himself invisible from view before pointing the wand to the door again.

 

“ _Bombarda_ ,”

 

And a small explosion threw the door from its frame.

 

Fred and George barged in as instructed and he followed after them. He knew it was a bit underhand to conceal himself and let the twin took the blame if anything went wrong, but he couldn’t risk exposing himself to Lockhart before he could put his plan into action. If the twins had to take the fall, then he’ll think of a way to not make everything too hard on them. But that was for later. Now, he had to take his Harry away first.

 

“Oh, that was uncalled for,” Lockhart greeted them. “Hello Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley,”

 

“Er… hi?” Fred greeted back, taken aback.

 

The classroom looked normal. Nothing seemed out of place. And Harry who was sitting looked calm enough. In fact, he didn’t show any kind of distress.

 

Tom didn’t like what he saw.

 

“We’re just looking for Harry here, Professor,” George claimed, making thing less awkward. “I don’t remember seeing him in the Great Hall,”

 

“Yeah,” Fred added. “You know how Harry’s fare in the school. We got a bit worried,”

 

“And when we found a locked door, we just have to take the chance,”

 

“We’re not risking anything. I hope you understand, Professor,”

 

“Sorry about the door. We’ll fix it somehow,”

 

“Although, we do appreciate if Filch doesn’t know it was us,”

 

He had to admit the twins’ approaches to all these protect Harry cause is less eloquent than what he would, but if it worked just fine, who was he to complain? So he decided it was that moment that he could place both of them in his people-who-can-be-in-his-circle list; a list which only has Harry’s name on it.

 

“You okay there, Harry?” Fred asked, worried.

 

“I’m fine,” Harry replied, too stiff to Tom’s liking.

 

This Harry wasn’t his Harry. As the twins looked at each other in confusion, each grabbing their wands firmer, Tom walked closer; mindful not to accidentally make any noise.

 

“See? Nothing’s wrong. What if you two go first. I still have something to talk with Mr Potter,” Lockhart said with hint of nervousness.

 

Tom was probably inch away from the raven. He took a careful look and saw what he dreaded. Cloudy, unfocused eyes with barely any expression on his face—Harry was imperiused.

 

“I think Harry needs to eat now, Professor,”

 

“Yeah, he looked like he was going to fall any moment,”

 

“Do you mind if—”

 

“—NO!” Lockhart denied them as they walk closer, his wand already pointed on both Fred and George. “I say we have a little chat. We don’t want to have Filch knows about the door, do we?”

 

Tom waited no more. In one second the twins took a step back and in a second later, Lockhart was dropped unmoving on the floor, frozen.

 

“ _Finite,_ ”

 

As if he just spent too much time underwater, Harry gasped for air as his eyes twinkled again. He would be falling to the floor if it wasn’t for Fred stabilizing him.

 

“Alright?” Tom asked, his glamour was removed for the second time. He instinctively ran his palm on Harry’s head to check on him.

 

Harry nodded, still processing why Tom was there. With the twins.

 

“I know it was Imperius, but he shouldn’t be left breathless after the effect had gone, yes?” Fred asked as his brother conjured a glass of water and helped Harry to drink it properly.

 

“There’s an easy way to find out,” Tom claimed, sneering.

 

He turned his head to the other person in the room whose eyes so desperately wished he wasn’t there. As he took a few steps closer, fear was visible on Lockhart’s face.

 

Aiming his wand right on Lockhart’s forehead, he casted one of his favourite spells.

 

“ _Legilimens_ ,”

 

He saw how Lockhart forced Harry to speak Parseltongue while the boy was under Imperius curse. It seemed he planned on using those words to try opening the Chamber of Secrets. Lockhart had even casted a curse he didn’t recognize when Harry seemed to be able to fight the influence and put the Gryffindor back to his trance state. He suspected that was the reason behind Harry’s reaction.

 

Angry, his determination to dig Lockhart’s mind deeper intensified. But he didn’t find anything useful that can be used against the professor. All he saw was how the girls swoon over him, how Lockhart used his time practising how to smile and how meticulous he became when it came to choose the best robes for next class. So he pushed harder, sweat prickling on his face. He didn’t want to damage Lockhart’s mind, at least not yet. And he knew he had to stop any second to avoid that to happen.

 

But as he lowered his wand, he finally found it. He cheered in silence as the image of a witch with hairy chin sat on a rocky chair proudly told her story of defeating a banshee. And of a wizard with deformed face seemed hesitant to share his experience living near a troll family. And of a supposed vampire hunter who hunted vampire but his persona reminded him too much of Lockhart.

 

So that was his secrets.

 

“Hey, Riddle. Got anything?” Fred asked.

 

Tom stopped his assault. “Yes,” he replied in triumph.

 

“Care to share?” George asked this time.

 

Tom regarded both twins and a very tired Harry in between them very carefully. “I think we’d better bring Harry out of here first,”

 

“Lockhart?” Harry finally spoke, his voice wavered.

 

Tom glanced at the professor and smirked. “He won’t dare tell this to others when I know everything I need to know to ruin him. Won’t you, Professor?”

 

Lockhart gave no reaction but if he could, Tom knew he would be trembling; possibly tried to obliviate him too.

 

“Good. Have a nice day, Professor,”

 

And they left the classroom; Tom once again casted Dissillusionment Charm and this time, to Harry too. But before he could take further step, Luna stopped him. How on Merlin’s name she was able to see him was a puzzle he can never finish.

 

“You will want to bring him to your quarters. There is too much nargles in the infirmary right now; not good for Harry,” she said, eyes looking straight to Tom. “And Mr Riddle, Sir, please take this. I think Harry needs it,”

 

Luna gave him the sandwich in blue napkin that he noticed had been with her earlier.

 

Again, Tom got baffled how the girl managed to grab his hand and put the sandwich right on the middle of his palm. Did she have extra eyes hidden somewhere or what?

 

Luna didn’t wait Tom to say thank you; not that he would since he was still figuring her out. She skipped away from them and lost in the hall within seconds.

 

“You heard her, your quarters,”

 

“Lead the way, Riddle,”

 

“Shut up,”

 

* * *

 

Lockhart finally managed to move himself when the clock almost struck midnight. During the horrible hours of trying to get loose, Peeves had to come and throw few hard things the ghost could find on his face and now he had this one small scar on his cheek. It was barely noticeable though.

 

He knew he can’t complain. As much as he hated it, complaining, or even mentioning the incident to anyone, could potentially end his career for good. He liked Hogwarts. He liked having young students swoon over him and not just some weird adults. He liked that people seemed to respect him now that he had a line of great co-workers. The pay was smaller than he had initially thought but that was just the thing he needed to cope for eternal glory. It is only time before he was offered a place at Wizengamot like Dumbledore; and if Lady Luck was on his side like always, he might be able to contest for the post of Minister of Magic. Who knew.

 

So he couldn’t risk jeopardising everything because he couldn’t handle an assistant teacher going--rampage--for the lack of better word. But he swore he would make Tom Riddle paid for it. He already figured out where The Chamber of Secrets was located. Now all he had to do was open it and let whatever being inside it out. And he’ll put the blame onto Riddle since the lad was the one with the ability to talk to snake and an actual Slytherin. And he considered putting Potter in the same league as Riddle too since the cause of all these to happen was him.

 

He had to lay low for a while first though. And he’ll put his plan on motion when they expected it the least. Perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to upload this yesterday but few things happened and I kind of forgot about it. These things are yet to be settled but I hope I would hear good news tomorrow. And just for a head up, I might not able to post Chapter 8 on time but if that happened, I promise to write a longer chapter. Cross fingers I don't have to write more. X


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not beta-ed.

It was a fine day; sunny and windy and the smell of the grass from yesterday's rain would remind some people to their fondest memories. A really good day to spend time on Hogwarts ground, but Harry Potter wasn't even there. He was in a teacher's quarters, sitting on the floor having staring contest with another two Hogwarts students.

“Would you do my homework for me, Harry?” Fred asked.

“Why would I? I’ve no idea how to answer mine, let alone the upper years,”

“But you read a lot. I mean, at least all those readings must be more than us combined,” George tried to persuade next. "Surely it's enough to help us,"

“I read stuff for my years,”

“What if we know which book to read and give it to you?” Fred wiggled his eyebrows, still persuading. “You know, it can prepare you for the hard stuff next year. Or the next next year,”

“And treacle tart ready whenever you need,” George added. “I’ll make sure no one scold you if you eat more sweets than you should,”

Harry regarded them carefully, ignoring the cold stare Tom was giving to the twins. He put his quill down and pushed his unfinished homework. He thought hard on the offer; treacle tart was tempting. Unlimited? A dream.

“So which book?” he asked. Thinking of how Professor McGonagall would react if the twins barged in her classroom to bring him the tart, it made him giggled.

It didn’t last long; the giggle. The next thing he knew was a cushion had hit his head.

“What?”

“You shouldn’t give in that fast, Harry,” Tom scolded him.

Ah… right. He should’ve worked on some more deals before saying yes. Probably asking the twins to buy him more sweets from Honeydukes would be a good idea. Or maybe if he dared them to do silly things for him; he didn’t know—maybe like turning Professor Snape into a blonde?

“Told you he’d lost at the tart,” George sighed, half amused.

“I know how to say no,” Harry claimed, his pitch rose a note.

“No, you don’t,” all three spoke in chorus.

Ever since the incident involving him being put under Unforgivable Curse, all three were extra cautious when it came to those who had contact with him. It was pretty nice at first when they seemed to cater to all his needs almost immediately he asked them (he did learn how to be a little bit selfish; thanks to Tom). But it suffocated him over time (in two days time to be exact) and he felt way too fragile, like if he did something as much as accidentally knocked onto a stranger, whoever the poor person was will be treated with a death glare no one wished to see (and possible inconvenience in Defence class) by Tom; or he or she would be unwilling participant in Fred and George experimental joke stuff.

So when Harry complained, all three started to mould him into a stronger version of himself. He had Tom personal coaching in Defence while Fred and George made sure he knew how to cast helpful charms perfectly. Who would’ve thought a simple _accio_ , if aimed right, could knock a person? Not only that, they all agreed Harry needed to change his habit of not putting himself first in any situation.

“It’s not like anyone is talking to me, let alone asking me to do their homework,” Harry sighed. “What’s the use of practising all that?”

“Lockhart will,” Tom replied nonchalantly.

“He hasn’t been talking to me in weeks! Thanks to you, he won’t even get near in class,”

“You miss all the attention, Harry?” Tom asked, teasing. “I could make him talk to you if you want,”

The cushion that landed on his head had now landed on Tom’s face. And when he heard sniggers from the twins, he displayed his ability in summoning charm and threw the same cushion on them next.

“That’s it, I’m leaving,”

“Where are you going?”

“Finding new friend! You guys suck,”

“The last time you want to find friends, you got Imperiused,”

“Well, I did learn few tricks from you three for any emergencies. You—” Harry pointed his finger at Tom, “—have made sure that professor sees me as a plague or something; and you two—” he pointed to Fred and George, “—have a freaking map that can track me down if needed. So why would I worry?!”

No one answered him.

“He’s not wrong you know,” one of the twins said, breaking the silence.

“Thank you, George. I’ll take my leave first. I’ll see you when I see you,”

“Soon, then,” Tom shrugged.

Harry stared at Tom in disbelief. “I hate you,” he said before making himself disappear from the quarters, his mouth didn’t stop complaining.

“I see he’s starting to be a bit loud,” Fred commented, chuckling. “Good thing, right?”

Tom merely shrugged, not even trying to answer the question. “Harry has taken his leave; when will you do the same?”

“When we want to. You see, Riddle; we have decided any invitation given to Harry shall be extended to George and me too,”

“So when you said Harry can come here as he pleased, we thought—why not us?”

“Plus, you don’t exactly see us as your students, do you?”

“And we have always see you as the prefect we soooooooo much looooooooove,”

“And really, we do need new place to do experiment for our joke shop. Your quarters is perfect,”

Tom slammed close the book he was reading. “You have the freaking Astronomy towers and all those empty classrooms to choose and I don’t see reasons to allow you do something that potentially can ruin Hogwarts,”

“Filch found out about those places. We need a new one,” Fred said.

“No, he hasn’t,”

“Well, he will someday. You know, we should have our backup place ready in case of anything,” George added. “And—”

“—you should go, now,” Tom sighed, knew if he continued the argument it will only boil him more. “Aescwine and Albertyne bite you know,”

“Ah—the perk of being Harry’s greatest companion—you won’t dare do that. Not when you know Harry will kill you,”

“Harry wouldn’t kill me,”

“You don’t know that,”

“You know what? I’m leaving. Spending more seconds with you two is taxing,”

“Awwww—we’re very honoured you thought so. So, where are you going? Hogsmeade?”

“Good idea. I won’t see you there,”

The twins stared at each other. Identical grins formed.

“Who says?” George asked.

“We’re following you,” Fred announced.

“You’re not allowed to leave the castle during school days, Weasley,” Tom sighed again. He really wanted to curse them. Just binding them to the chair for the night would be very nice.

“Yes, if we use the castle main entrance. But that would be telling,”

“We know few secret passages that can lead us straight to Honeydukes. Or Shrieking Shack if you want,”

Tom went silent.

“Oh, come on! You got to let loose sometimes. Break some rules,”

“Harry is not the only one who needs to smile more. And I am not saying this because I want to see you smile or something,”

Tom scrutinized them. He weighed his option but he before he realized it, the twins had dragged him closer to the door and guided him to the One-Eyed Witch statue on the third floor. It was belatedly realized that he didn’t even try to get away from them, let alone fought his way out.

“This will lead us straight to the Honeydukes. Dissendium,”

The hump on the witch’s statue opened to reveal a short slide into a dark tunnel. One of the twins winked at him before jumped into it without hesitation, a clear indication they were used to this.

“After you, Riddle,” the left twin grinned.

He shouldn’t be here. He should’ve reported this to the Headmaster, or to Professor McGonagall at the very least. But instead, he took a last glance at their surrounding before he jumped into the tunnel.

Fred, he believed, had already waiting with lumos on his wand. It didn’t take more than a second later before they were joined by another red-head.

“We’ll bring you the Shrieking Shack during our next trip. We just thought showing you this route would help you in case you need to please Harry,”

“He developed addiction to treacle fudge if you ask me and Honeydukes kept their extra supply in a green container next to red shelf,”

“We could be caught and that is stealing,” Tom reminded them as they were walking. The tunnel was a bit too low for his height so he had to bow a bit.

“You are if you take without paying,”

“We do like mischief but we were also taught that taking something that is not yours is wrong. Well, I guess if you steal from Filch would be different,”

“We convinced ourselves things we took from him wasn’t really his at the first place. Whoever the original owners were would be more that pleased their confiscated items were no longer hidden in his dusty drawers,”

“Still stealing,” Tom chided half-heartedly.

“You should’ve witnessed what we did when we acquired the map for the first time. It’s all fun. We didn’t really harm him… just… annoyed him more than others did,”

“This world need more laugh, Riddle. Being stoic is boring,”

But he liked being boring and he felt no need to let them know if his thought. It was a much safer, calmer option to life. Less hassle too. Making effort to laugh will take more energy and more of his time. But he can’t deny laughing was fun; and lately he liked the idea of fun.

Maybe they were right. He had too little fun before.

What can get so wrong breaking a rule or two?

 

* * *

 

  
The library seemed emptier than usual that day. He wasn’t so sure if he should be happy or otherwise. Less people was always good for him but with only the studious lots left in the library, he doubted there was any students who would willingly entertain his intention of making new friend. Plus, Harry knew better than to try and talk to the OWL and NEWT takers who preferred to bury themselves in stack of books. Sighing, realizing this was not going to be an easy task, he headed to the book shelves, eyes still wondering around hoping he could spot a soul who won’t bite him the moment he opened his mouth.

He almost cussed loudly when the book he was trying to get hit him instead of landing perfectly on his hands. Few heads turned on him nevertheless over the small squeak he made and gave him an accusatory look that he turned red.

He smiled guilty, apologizing in silence. Harry picked up the book and put it gently on the lower shelf together with the books he needed as if someone would kill him if he made another noise. He looked around when it made a small thud and sighed in relief when no one was looking at him. But there was one Hufflepuff who looked half-dead shushing him; apparently his sigh was way too loud.

Pretending not seeing the girl, Harry tried to take another book. It was a shelf higher than the one that hit his head though. He knocked the shelf lightly and decided if it was sturdy enough to hold the weight of those thick books, adding his light weight won’t do any harm. It wasn’t like it will topple over him, right?

He had his feet on the second bottom shelf, ready to push himself upwards, when the book he intended to take suddenly flew away.

“You do realize you can take the book by magic, do you?” It was Draco Malfoy, his hand holding the book. “I don’t think you need this for homework Professor Snape gave though. It didn’t cover what’s in the lesson. I would suggest—nope, not this—yes, this one,”

The blonde gave Harry another book in red binding, much thinner and it was located within reachable shelf; no climbing needed.

“You might want to step down, Potter. People start staring,” Malfoy said, he himself started to browse the books on the same shelf.

“Ah, yes,” Harry replied, embarrassed. “Thank you, by the way,”

They stood in silence for a moment. Harry had forgotten why he was taking so many books and what he planned to do with them. It had been a while since others started a conversation with him without malice intent… or was Malfoy just like them all?

“Hey, Malfoy. Mind if I ask you something?” he asked, feigning confidence.

Malfoy turned his head to him in question, his eyes staring at his face. Harry blushed slightly, not used to have someone other than Tom, Fred and George did the same. He had so many questions that started with why. Why did you always sit next to me? Why are you talking to me? Why did you care?

“Er… do you want to be my friend?”

Harry wasn’t really sure why his tongue decided to ask that question. Nevertheless, he had silently hoped Malfoy would say yes despite not knowing if this guy was actually nice or otherwise. Maybe having more friends would do him good although he knew Malfoy would need to go through some sort of screening test with his three guards. That; if Malfoy agreed. He didn’t think the Slytherin would though.

“I mean—I—it’s okay if you say no. Tom said I—”

“Okay,” Malfoy cut him. The blonde offered his hand to Harry like it was a normal thing to do. It was normal though; it just that Harry never thought normal would be nice to him.

He stared at Draco, shocked. “Why?” he habitually asked.

“Why what?” Draco asked back.

“You are sure you want to be my friend?” he asked again, still deciding if he should extend his hand too. “I’m not well-liked. You might be hated if people know you talk to me,”

“Well, I’ve already talked to you. And I’m Slytherin, I am bound to be hated by probably everyone. And my house doesn’t really care who we befriend with. Even if they do care, I don’t,”

Harry looked at the waiting hand. He could take it right there and then. But what if all Malfoy wanted was to hurt him? What if he was not as sincere as he appeared to be? What if Malfoy made a big deal and blame him if Fred and George made him uncomfortable? What if Tom refused to approve Malfoy?

He then vaguely remembered the hallway incident when Malfoy had come to his defence. And the few times he had sit next to him in class (no, they weren’t really talking to each other that much all those times). And the small gestures of caring for him here and there.

“Hi, I’m Harry Potter, your new friend,” Harry said, finally shook Malfoy’s hand.

Malfoy smirked. “Hello, there. Draco Malfoy, you can call me Draco if you want,”

“Then it’s Harry for you,” Harry said, smiling giddily.

“So, Harry, do you want to sit? You can talk while doing your homework you know,”

“Ah… yes. I sat there, where were you sitting? I can move if you want,”

“I’ll move closer to you. I don’t have my stuff spread on the table like yours, so it will be easier that way,”

Harry turned his head to his table. He never noticed but he really did make a mess. Between his notes and opened books, there were parchments everywhere.

“I’m not always that messy,” Harry half-defended himself, shrugging.

“I’m aware of that,”

“Huh?”

“I saw it every other day. I always sat not far from you and I have no idea why you decided to take all books and cover every inch of the table with it today. Are you onto something with the twins?”

“I—you sat where?”

Draco pointed to a neatly stacked book two tables away from where he sat.

“Are you always there? I never notice,”

Chuckling, Draco shook his head. “Not always there, but near enough to see you at that favourite table of yours. If you really don’t want people to pull prank on you, you shouldn’t sit in the same place each time you come here. You’ll be much vulnerable that way,”

“Ugh,” Harry grimaced. “You sounds lots like Tom. Don’t do that. You shouldn’t do that. That’s not right.”

“Tom?”

Harry belatedly realized he shouldn’t mention his relationship with Tom to Draco; to anyone even. But maybe people already knew.

“My neighbour, Tom,” he blurted.

Draco raised his brows, much like Tom when he needed true answer. It made him a taf uncomfortable for the resemblance but with Draco, he felt less compliant to speak the truth.

“You are not a good liar,” Draco scoffed. “It’s Lockhart’s assistant Tom, isn’t it?”

“Well, I have no idea his name is Tom. I know he’s called Riddle,” Harry said, averting his eyes to somewhere else.

“Yeah, definitely not a good liar,” Draco decided. “You should learn how to manage your expression. It will benefit you a great deal,”

“Why you Slytherins like to ask me to learn those useless things? Can’t I just be nice to everyone?”

“So it is Tom Riddle,”

“I am starting to regret this friendship if you ask me,”

Draco smirked. “I got curious how a stone like him made a friend out of you,”

“You know him?” Harry asked.

“The upper years Slytherins won’t let the younger ones don’t know about him. His name was mentioned the very first day I stepped in the Slytherin common room.”

Harry huffed; half impressed, still annoyed. “He’s that great?”

“If the stories I heard are true, he is the perfect Slytherin after the Great Slytherin himself. The most cunning of us all. Smart and charismatic at the same time. No one dared to go against his words, which is why he was—still actually—well respected in our house. So when he came back here, we sort of talk about him every single day.”

“Yeah, and the Gryffindors hate Tom to the core,”

“You don’t feel the same way, do you? And apparently the Weasley twins don’t too,”

“Tom is—my neighbour, well sort of. We met at the park nearby the house I lived in. He helped me back then and from there we got closer. Fred and George probably just wanted to annoy him, that’s why they are always around too. I’m not so sure about the not hating part though,”

Draco looked at him from top to bottom, scrutinized every single aspect of himself. He appeared to be thinking hard, probably wondering how a person whose Slytherins looked up to could befriend him.

“I think we should start on the homework,” Harry sighed, putting stop to Draco’s stare.

Draco nodded. He walked off to his table, taking his bag while Harry went back to his.

_'He is the perfect Slytherin after the Great Slytherin himself.'_

Was everyone had that thought of Tom? Tom was perfect in a way but he had flaw too; like his extreme dislike towards carrots but still eat them in public because it will be embarrassing if people were to know he was a picky eater.

As Draco sat in front of him, Harry had another idea.

“I think homework can be postponed. What if I bring you somewhere?”

“Where?”

“Just somewhere, if you want of course,”

“No trick?”

“Not for now,” Harry teased him.

“I can say no, right?” Draco asked, hesitant.

“Sure, but it’s going to be fun. Well, I think it’s going to be fun,” Harry said, grinning. He had already pack his bag. “Do you mind waiting though? I want to return these first” Harry pointed at the scattered books.

“I am saying no,”

“No, you’re not. Wait here,”

Harry stood quickly and left a baffled Draco. He didn’t know where he got the confidence to talk to him like that but he kind of like it. Maybe he should do it often. He wondered what would those three think when he brought Draco. He was capable to make friend without them and it felt pretty great.

He was almost hopping as he returned to the table. Harry noticed a few glance pointed at him but this time, he didn’t feel the need to cower himself. He grinned as he thought of Tom’s reaction as he announced _‘Hey, Tom! See, I found a friend!’_. He hoped Draco didn’t mind though.

They had barely walked away when he heard a cough so familiar and his smile faltered when he saw a bushy-haired girl approached them.

“I see you made a friend,” Hermione duly stated. Or was it Granger now they were no longer talking?

Harry wasn’t sure what should he replied. He looked at Draco and the blonde looked at him.

“I see you less in the common room now,” she added as no reply came from him. “And Ron mentioned you are hardly in the room except for sleeping,”

Harry took a deep breath. “I like it here,” his spoke with a very slow voice, feeling restless.

“What do you need from him?” Draco asked, his voice was a bit commanding.

“I am in the same house as he is and I am just asking,” she talked back, her chin went upward. “He is a Gryffindor and it is not good for him to be seen with… with someone like you,”

“Since when what Harry does matters to you? Last I remember your house was the reason he got landed in the infirmary,”

“Draco,” Harry tugged the blonde’s shirt, his eyes pointed at a few tables with its occupant staring at them. Draco strode to the library entrance and Harry didn’t need to be told to follow him.

“If Harry had explained clearly, none of those thing will happen to him.”

Harry stopped his steps and judging by how loud her voice was, it made Draco stopped too. He could see from where he was standing that Draco was ready to make a scene.

“You never gave me any chances; you realize that?” Harry opened his mouth before Draco did, sadness left him as he was filled with nothing but new determination. “You all shun me and decided to believe things you want to believe. I have such a high hope in you,”

She was nice to him before. And despite not doing anything to defend him, Harry had understood perfectly why she didn’t and he wasn’t mad all; a bit offended, but not mad. He had this thought that she had been trying to put senses in the other Gryffindor’s heads that he wasn’t the bad guy. He had been counting on her to make things a bit bearable but to listen those words from her, it hurt.

“Harry, you don’t think—”

He smiled as he turned to face his supposed friend again. “At least Draco Malfoy didn’t start a conversation by judging me. Well, at least he didn’t do it in front of my face,”

“Harry, I didn’t—”

“It’s okay. I’m used to it, you know. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to take my leave. See you around, Granger,”

And so they left. Both of them didn’t talk until they reached the stairs. It was that moment he realized seeing Tom now probably was not a great idea. Tom would see through him and started asking questions.

“Hey, Draco, do you mind if I bring you somewhere else?”

Draco merely shrugged. “I have no idea where you’re bringing me at the first place so… yeah,”

Harry grinned, his mood improved as he descended the staircase. “Well, I think it will be more fun to bring you there. Are you hungry? I am,”

“I am not going to the Great Hall to eat if that’s where we’re going. Pansy has been looking for me all day and I really don’t want to see her today,”

“You two are fighting?”

“I wish we are,” Draco scoffed. “Then I have reasons not to talk to her for the whole week,”

“Want to explain?”

“Not really,”

Harry chuckled as he Draco avoided his gaze. He was so going to dig on that matter. And if he couldn’t do it himself, he bet the twins would gladly take the job from him.

“Hey, Harry,” Draco cut him from his thought. “I don’t judge you negatively,”

Harry simply smiled; not sure what he should say.

“But I will admit that you make me curious and I don’t know if I will still not judge every single thing you do in the future,”

“That’s… good to hear,”

“I might come to hate you, but as for now, I want to be your friend,”

“Well, I can live with that,”

Number of people Harry Potter can call friend: four.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I mentioned it was going to take a while to upload new chapter, I meant it was going to take like two weeks. It went beyoooooond that I supposed and I am very sorry for the delay. The next chapter is half-ready, so I see no reason you shall wait that long. Still, cross fingers! X


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